Checking what VT sugar makers are doing [Archive] - Page 9

blissville maples

03-14-2018, 07:52 AM

Alot of light syrup coming in lately know a few producer who are hitting fancy now or close to, seems as though our March is more February this year. Yesterday night was 29 warmed up to 32 yesterday, running on gravity before kick pumps on🤔 and ran pretty good for 2-3 hrs on vac- as it snowed at 31-32 degrees....

I've noticed this year that the trees are running at very marginal temperatures it must be because of the amount of liquid they are up taking,

I guess when you got to go you got to go you can't hold it!!!

spud

03-14-2018, 02:51 PM

Sap is running 160 GPH right now. I'm glad I turned the pump back on. If it's going to run today then it might run tomorrow also. Tomorrow's temp is supposed to be 2-4 degrees warmer.

Spud

JoeJ

03-14-2018, 05:45 PM

Sap started to run at 12:00. Left the sugar house at 4:00, 31 degrees and snowing and the trees had run 1/2 gpt. I guess that is why you leave your vacuum pump on all the time.

Joe

MJPJ Sugars

03-14-2018, 06:46 PM

Something pretty interesting today...

Normally, we hit 58 brix at 221 degrees at my house here in Georgia, VT. We start testing with the hydrometer at 219, and cut the heat when we hit 58.

Today, at 219, the syrup measured 63 brix -- very thick.

Barometer here is 29.18. Apparently, that's pretty low -- thank you Nor' Easter.

Boiled some water to see if we were going nuts, and sure enough, water is boiling here at 207-208, a good 4-5 degrees under normal.

Am I nuts? Ever happen to anybody?

Thanks!

JQ

EBG18T

03-14-2018, 07:17 PM

I think I might need to recalibrate my thermometers. We were boiling water last night below 210. I calibrated them a few weeks back. I cant get my temps above 214 in my front pan. Elevation here is 1300 feet. Maybe it was all due to the storm?

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JoeJ

03-14-2018, 08:19 PM

DrTimPerkins

03-15-2018, 09:06 AM

No sap for us these past few days. Just a wee tad too high in elevation and thus too cold. No sap, but TONS of snow -- probably close to 3 ft and still predicted to come down in the mountains (where we are) for a few more days. No decent sap weather forecast for our site for at least another week. Going to be fast and furious once it finally gets going again.

sapmaple

03-15-2018, 09:27 AM

The barometer at my sugar house in Essex was 29.22 this afternoon. The lowest I have seen it in 3 years with a auto draw off. Today's draw off temp was 218.2. Pretty low. For me, that draw off temperature produced syrup that was 66.9% when the test syrup was 211 degrees.

Joe

We started drawing at 218 I love how this business is constantly changing from day to day and year to year Keeps you on your toes and your brain engaged GO WITH THE FLOW!

GeneralStark

03-15-2018, 09:30 AM

Very little sap yesterday so I turned the pump off.... May miss out on some today but I need to get out in the woods to deal with some issues related to the near 3 ft. of snow we have received here in the last 48 hours. Mainlines are buried and a bunch of limbs came down. And who knows how may drops are disconnected. My stack got tweaked too when the snow on the roof slid so I need to check that out before boiling again...

It was pretty slow going in the woods prior to this last storm so it's going to be interesting. Fortunately we have some friends staying the weekend and they have agreed to help pack out trails with snowshoes....

MJPJ Sugars

03-15-2018, 09:31 AM

Traveling for business this year, I didn't tap in until Tuesday March 6th. In the first 9 days of my season, with only one additional tap, I've collected 78% of the sap I've collected all last year -- just over a gallon per tap per day. 34-35 degrees and snowing, and steady runs, every day.

I hang 31 buckets, so over 300 gallons for me. With good wood, my little half-pint evaporator will boil down about 5 gallons an hour... thank goodness for the little "bucket RO” I got at the end of last season -- that little thing has been cranking almost non-stop, so I've been able to keep-up.

We do a fair amount of "hiking" to get up and out of our yard/woods. But with all the snow yesterday, tractor stayed in the garage, and it was all hiking... looking forward to some under-30 temps the next few days to catch our breath :)

Ultimatetreehugger

03-15-2018, 11:12 AM

Sap is running 160 GPH right now. I'm glad I turned the pump back on. If it's going to run today then it might run tomorrow also. Tomorrow's temp is supposed to be 2-4 degrees warmer.

Spud Spud, where are you located. My releaser only dumped twice all day yesterday. lol

spud

03-15-2018, 01:44 PM

I am on the border of Canada. Yesterday I got 550 gallons of sap from my trees that run into my sugar house. It was coming from the trees facing South and east. Others in the area said it ran a little for them also.

Spud

blissville maples

03-16-2018, 07:55 AM

It ran pretty well wensday and Thursday, I pulled almost gallons and half per tap at 34-36 degrees!! Will be interesting to see what happens after this cold snap, may be quick end who knows.....

DrTimPerkins

03-16-2018, 08:58 AM

Will be interesting to see what happens after this cold snap, may be quick end who knows.....

We've got enough snow on the ground to take us through May! At least 3' of new snow with this past storm. Hasn't got near warm enough up here to run for over a week.

18151

tcross

03-16-2018, 09:07 AM

Same here! it wanted to run the day before yesterday, but my laterals are frozen solid from tap to saddle. it looked like the sap was starting to push the taps out of the tree because it couldn't go anywhere in the frozen lines! I think i'll have some work to do in the woods once we get some warmer weather. powder up above my knees will be fun.

WestfordSugarworks

03-16-2018, 10:12 AM

I am pretty happy about the snow. Hope it helps to keep us going for a long time and moderate the big sun, warm days that will be coming. It's heavy and wet too so should be around for a while. This week is similar to this week last year. We got 3' of snow and sap didn't run for a long time.

to100

03-16-2018, 10:20 PM

Same here I have nothing in 11 days and the 11 before that I had 8 runs 1 1/2 got. I have 22 inches on settled snow on my wood shed.
But I had several great days skiing.

mainebackswoodssyrup

03-17-2018, 07:06 AM

With the amount of snow stretching from northern VT to western and northern Maine, if this spring doesn't have any crazy 80 degree days the syrup yield is going to be epic. Suck sap!!

spud

03-17-2018, 08:18 AM

I agree that things are looking real good in the weeks to come. Even if the temps hit 70-80 the sap will still flow for a week at a rate of .5 to 1 GPT each day. Those that are above 50% of last years production should at least hit their last years overall numbers. I think it's time for the packers to build bigger warehouses. :)

Spud

sapmaple

03-17-2018, 09:57 AM

I would say its time for some big money investors set-up some new packing facilities with a fully staff sales team (rather then backing more mega production )
The current packers can only do so much!

EBG18T

03-18-2018, 10:17 AM

It was -13F when I went out this morning. I have a funny feeling I wont see any sap flow today.

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hogisland42

03-19-2018, 03:52 PM

Well I have to say you guys are more excited than me. I personally rather have an average year and higher syrup price than an crazy above average year and see the price go in the toilet.

wiam

03-19-2018, 05:05 PM

Parker

03-19-2018, 06:22 PM

I think it does.(they just want you to think it dosent)..if canadian syrup was cheaper you would not see vt syrup being bought and shipped to canada as is happening now.

drewlamb

03-19-2018, 06:36 PM

Well I have to say you guys are more excited than me. I personally rather have an average year and higher syrup price than an crazy above average year and see the price go in the toilet.

I'd be with you Hogisland if I was a bigger producer. But bulk prices don't seem to impact retail much, for now. As long as that's the case, I'll always get excited to make as much as possible since I don't sell much bulk syrup and like to put up a rainy day supply, which has never actually happened!

GeneralStark

03-19-2018, 09:18 PM

I think it does.(they just want you to think it dosent)..if canadian syrup was cheaper you would not see vt syrup being bought and shipped to canada as is happening now.

Who is "they"?

GeneralStark

03-19-2018, 09:19 PM

Parker

03-20-2018, 04:58 AM

Genral..who bought highland? Who bought sweet tree?
There are sevral canadian buyers buying syrup in the u.s. now and shipping it north...a welcome development imho

drewlamb

03-20-2018, 07:54 AM

PCFarms

03-20-2018, 09:18 AM

How much we make in VT has little bearing on the bulk price.

Up here in Canada, we have been having a pretty lack-luster year. We caught the flows in late February, but we haven't boiled since March 1st. The season typically ends around April 20, so the runway is getting shorter and shorter. I know in Quebec, most places haven't even started yet.

IMO The bulk price staying stable more or less depends on Quebec having a less than average year. With 100 million pounds in the reserve before the season starts, more taps than last year, anything more than average yields will be too much for the markets to absorb in a reasonable amount of time for the federation to start moving inventory (its a lot of product for Quebec producers to have cash tied up in). The last 2 years have both seen record sales and record - FYI last year they sold 115 million pounds and produced 140 million pounds (both records or close to it).

We are at about 0.1 gpt, although producers south of us with a little warmer climate are at about 0.25 gpt.

GeneralStark

03-20-2018, 10:10 AM

Wondering what folks are doing, if anything, for open house this weekend. Working on the 10th day straight of no sap here and doesn't look to loosen up until early next week. I had registered with VMSA but pulled the plug yesterday as I don't foresee a very rich sugarhouse experience with a frozen evaporator. I have always been reluctant to do the more public VMSA open house weekend for just this reason. Plan to advertise something more locally and last minute in April, when I have a sap forecast. Have folks done open house without boiling? Or boiled... water? Not sure I could do that.

It's always a crap shoot. Last year we didn't boil because we were frozen up and the year before we didn't boil because we were done sugaring as the trees had budded. To be honest, we haven't seen a major difference in sales between boiling and non-boiling weekends. Our best sales were last year actually...

In some ways I prefer not boiling because there is less to worry about. I don't really like having a bunch of people around watching me try to thaw out a valve or deal with all the myriad issues that sometimes pop up. When we don't boil we have other activities and generally make some food with maple syrup and do lots of syrup tastings.

Hard saying if we will boil this year as things are pretty frozen up. Prior to this cold snap we were getting sap whenever it went above freezing, but with over 3 ft. of snow on the ground and several nights at 0F, I'm not sure what will happen later this week when it does go above freezing. That March sun is pretty powerful though...

We do not boil water and will not do that. I have boiled raw sap instead of concentrate when we had just enough to be able to light the evap. and boil for a couple hours.

WestfordSugarworks

03-20-2018, 01:16 PM

billyinvt

03-20-2018, 02:50 PM

I'm pretty certain it is running on the south facing taps. The question is whether I can get enough fresh sap to float the frozen solid blocks in my tanks.

MJPJ Sugars

03-20-2018, 04:09 PM

In Georgia, VT, from the 6th through the 15th, I collected better than 1 gallon per tap per day, much of it in that 34-degree range. I see a couple taps that are getting blasted by direct sunlight dripping slowly right now -- one drop every 3-5 seconds -- with the stick reading 30 degrees.

DrTimPerkins

03-20-2018, 04:24 PM

Air temperature is not important -- tree temperature is.

EBG18T

03-20-2018, 08:00 PM

I checked both areas tonight. Both are still sitting with frozen sap in the spouts. Boo. Need more sun!!

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GeneralStark

03-20-2018, 10:11 PM

Sap running for people? I feel that at 30 degrees and with this kind of sun at this time of year, sap is running and pumps should be on. Sitting at my apartment in Burlington and the sun is beating through the window, lots of melting snow dripping off the roof.

I turned my vac. pump back on this morning as the lines started to thaw and was able to pull in about 150 gal. this afternoon. Nothing too impressive but that was over a short period of time before things froze up again. That did enable me to get through the woods and find every last disconnected drop and get the vac. back to 27"...for now. Fortunately a friend helped me pack out snowshoe trails this weekend throughout the woods so I can move quickly and get around to fix leaks. I do have one area that is shaded by hemlocks that is completely frozen and may not thaw until some warmer weather.

With the cold nights I have no idea how much sap I will actually be able to process this weekend for the open house. I have about a 700 gal. ice cube in my raw sap tank and about 150 gal of fresh sap which is likely to become part of that ice cube. I'm likely to get sap the next several days, but how much will actually be liquid by saturday is the question.

What a weird season...

rhwells2003

03-21-2018, 08:07 AM

With it only 28 degrees at the house but that nice warm sun I put the pump on yesterday when I got home from work. First 5min it was coming in hard, then to nothing. So basically sucked my lines out. I'm fine with that. I gathered my daughters 13 buckets too. Mainly to snowshoe a path from bucket to bucket so she can get to them (she basically swims in the woods right now). I figured I picked up 2-3gal of frozen pucks. Nothing dripping. Hopefully that changes in the next couple days. Next week is starting to look better

spud

03-21-2018, 07:44 PM

I was able to get 600 gallons today. Sap started running at about 1:00 and ended at 6:30.

Spud

mff

03-21-2018, 07:49 PM

Had frozen lines yesterday evening, but running well at dusk tonight. Not much in the tank so it started late. Have been having good evening runs before the freeze with the 3/16, and still 33 degrees here at the house, so am hopeful.

GeneralStark

03-21-2018, 08:54 PM

Nothing worth mentioning here.... forecast looking better for next week but I don't think much is going to happen before then unless we get an extended period of clear skies and that March sun warms the trees.

spud

03-22-2018, 07:03 PM

Up to about .5 GPT for the day. Sap still running 300 GPH but should freeze up in an hour or two. Sap is testing at 2%.

Spud

mff

03-22-2018, 08:26 PM

1.5 gal per tap in the last 24hr. Running well when I gathered at dusk. South facing slope. Ground is still snow covered.

rhwells2003

03-23-2018, 08:41 AM

wont lie, pretty jealous of those last two reports. My trees are still pretty froze. I got maybe 1/4gal/tap yesterday MAYBE.

GeneralStark

03-23-2018, 08:51 AM

I pulled in about .5gpt yesterday as well. Vac. was fluctuating between 25" and and 27" last night before it froze up. A sure sign I have some more disconnected drops despite finding them all 24 hours previously... I'm hoping for another decent run today so we can boil tomorrow for the open house weekend...

billyinvt

03-23-2018, 09:54 AM

Forecast for next week keeps getting better. Looking like a big state wide sap run. Hope you’ve all got enough wood left!

spud

03-23-2018, 07:12 PM

Sap is running good today. I'm up to .75 GPT and it's still coming in. Should hit a gallon before it freezes up. Still testing 2-2.1%.

Spud

mff

03-23-2018, 08:02 PM

Another 1.5 GPT today. Hard freeze came early last night. Expect it to run later into the evening tonight.

I’m seeing a couple of days in the 50’s next week, followed by cooler temps.

WestfordSugarworks

03-23-2018, 11:45 PM

The spouts popping off has been pretty ridiculous for us. Yesterday our 3000 tap bush was running 12" vacuum, I spent nearly 5 hours walking lines through the deep snow, found a lot of popped drops, and got us back up to 26.5 or so and then my dad found a leaking quick connect and fixed that we so we were up to nearly max vac.

Then today my dad gets there after work and we were pulling 10" again. He fixes everything and comes to help me at our 12000 tap bush where we were pulling 15" to start out. We found 30 popped drops and a few chews and spouts that needed a whack. Walked 7 miles through the knee high snow. Glad i'm young and can do it. Now back up to 28", would like to get to 28.4" which has historically been our max vacuum there. Haven't been running at max vac too much this year, but been above 27.5" almost always, usually around 28".

I hope the spouts stop popping off drops. At least next week there will be some nights that don't freeze so spouts won't be able to pop off as much. I estimate we have reconnected 120 drops to spouts this season so far, some trees we've had to do it three times. Ridiculous.

Ended up getting a bit more than .5 gal per tap today in our big bush, not sure about small one. Should be a big week coming up. Good luck to all.

spud

03-24-2018, 09:17 AM

I feel your pain for sure. Yesterday I started the day with vacuum down to 22.5 inches. I walked about 2 miles through very deep snow to find three spouts that had popped out. Of course they were all in the farthest section of my woods. I am now running 25.5 inches of vacuum to all my booster tanks. I hope the snow melts fast so I can get around the woods easier. I hope to get to 27 inches by tomorrow or Monday.

Spud

EBG18T

03-24-2018, 12:47 PM

Went to collect barrels this morning only to find someone stopped and turned all my 55 gallon barrels on their side. I guess I should have collected last night instead of spending time with the family.

Do you guys secure your barrels to a tree to prevent behavior like this?

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WestfordSugarworks

03-24-2018, 07:41 PM

That sucks.. at any time someone could come to either of our bushes and do a lot of financial damage in a short period of time but we've never had any sap or equipment stolen, nothing vandalized. Then again, both our properties are set back off the road a little with not much tubing visible as you drive by at 40 mph. So we escape a lot probably. sorry that happened.

GeneralStark

03-24-2018, 08:13 PM

I was talking with one of my neighbors, a fellow sugarmaker, at our open house today about the issues he and others, including myself, have been having with vandalism and theft in this area of VT. It's a serious problem and it is a major PITA given that we all work very hard to make our crop. I'm lucky that I have only had some gloves and a bottle of defoamer taken. Others have lost considerably more valuable equipment. It appears as if about 12 sugarhouses in the area have been affected by the same family/group, and that they are using and or selling the equipment they are taking. They do this at night and they always drop a guy or two off that then walk in off the road and grab what they can and then load it up when they get picked up. The only hope in catching them is getting them on film. Someone suggested to me that a leg-hold trap may be a better option....

We were able to boil today from sap we collected Thurs. and Friday. About 1300 gal. came in with over 1gpt Friday. Today ran pretty well also so we have some more sap to process tomorrow. We made 27 gal. of AR right on the GD line. Lots of visitors and great sales. And the only mishap was I overflowed a permeate tank so no big deal. Also got to try out our new diaphragm filter press pump. All I can say is WOW, it is awesome and so far superior to a gear pump.

mff

03-24-2018, 08:51 PM

Just over 1 GPT tonight. Cooled off quicker last night than I expected. Driveway is getting crunchy underfoot now.

spud

03-24-2018, 11:31 PM

I was able to get a little over a quart per tap today. Sap tested at 2.2%. Tomorrow should be the start to a very busy week. Good luck everyone.

Spud

blissville maples

03-25-2018, 09:36 AM

Fired pumps up Thursday to find 10-15 inches at all releaser, after chasing popped off t's and spouts back to 25+, 20-30 pop offs all together on about 3300 taps. Very frustrating. Final back to boiling pulled in 5200 gals from Thursday afternoon to Saturday midday, and made about 70 gals Amber but oh so close to fancy!! That's ok fancy and Amber are both 2.00 so no more premium for the light

Flat Lander Sugaring

03-25-2018, 07:52 PM

http://www.cdlusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/manual-leak-find-anglais.pdf

best money I ever spent in sugaring! no need to walk every line just turn up unit and sweep the lines at 40 ft.

Flat Lander Sugaring

03-25-2018, 07:57 PM

oceanstatejoblot.com maple syrup 10 QT

mff

03-25-2018, 08:18 PM

About 1 GPT tonight. Tested at 2.0. A couple of weeks ago it was testing at 1.8.

spud

03-26-2018, 06:23 AM

I got .75 GPT yesterday and it tested at 2.1%. I don't seem to be getting as many 1 gallon per tap days as others but my overall numbers seem to be good. I am at 67% of what I got last year. I am hoping the big daddy trees will really kick in sometime this week.

Spud

spud

03-26-2018, 06:29 AM

http://www.cdlusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/manual-leak-find-anglais.pdf

best money I ever spent in sugaring! no need to walk every line just turn up unit and sweep the lines at 40 ft.

How much? If your in the woods how far away can a leak be for this unit to pick it up? Thanks.

Spud

wdchuck

03-26-2018, 06:54 AM

How much? If your in the woods how far away can a leak be for this unit to pick it up? Thanks.

Spud
And can it differentiate between a leak and the rustle of beech leaves in the breeze?

WestfordSugarworks

03-26-2018, 07:03 AM

Found another 45 hanging drops yesterday but got vacuum up again. I'm sure it will be down again today. Had a really good boil, got about 150 gallons through of nice GD. Haven't made fancy in a couple years. Got a new probe from Marcland so our autodraw was working well again finally. Drawing off with just a .1 or .2 degree variation in temp. Good amount of niter in front pan and easy filtering still. Sap was at 2.0 or 2.1, best of the year for us

billyinvt

03-26-2018, 08:13 AM

These ice cold nights sure do make it easy to keep your sap fresh. Expecting a couple big runs today and tomorrow.

GeneralStark

03-26-2018, 11:01 AM

Another open house weekend in the books. Sunday was slower but still good visitation and sales. Was able to boil both days though took a bit to get going Sunday as the sap tank valve kept plugging with ice and starving the ro. Made a total of 60+ gal. AR over the weekend which was surprising given all the ice in the tank and how much sap we had. Sugar content has clearly come up.... The only mishap Sunday was not fully closing the drain on the pre-heater and then finally realizing it when the flue pan level kept going up...

Yesterday was the first day in a while no drops were dangling. We'll see what today brings. Looks like we will all be busy this week with some warm weather and nights without freezes. I need to inventory the barrels I have to make sure I have enough syrup storage...

spud

03-26-2018, 02:33 PM

Sap has been running since 9:45 this morning. Running 350 GPH and should run till about 9:00pm. Still testing at 2.0%

Spud

DrTimPerkins

03-26-2018, 04:24 PM

As things finally start thawing up here on the hill we are discovering pull-aparts....on mainline fittings with stainless fittings.

mff

03-26-2018, 08:58 PM

1.5 GPT as of 6pm, and running strong. Temp is down to 25 already.

Probably will switch to gathering before work so the tractor doesn’t dig up the pasture roadway. It is still mostly ice and snow covered, but it is melting fast.

spud

03-27-2018, 06:36 AM

I got .75 GPT yesterday. It was a good day but I think my big trees are still a bit froze. I tested the sap last night and it was 2.1%. Went down to 28 degrees last night so today should be another good day. I am at 68% of last years production. Several weeks of good sugaring to go.

Spud

tcross

03-27-2018, 06:57 AM

sap ran fairly well here yesterday. not quite 1gpt. but sugar went from 2% up to 2.5% which I don't get too often. I had a first boiling last night. Our first draw lasted 3 1/2 hours. stopped for 20 minutes and went another 2 1/2 hours. We've never come close to that before. made our first AR this year as well. things should pick up a bit the next few days.

GeneralStark

03-27-2018, 09:22 AM

Good run yesterday with about 1.25 gal/tap. Had to search out a few disconnected drops to get the vac back up to 27", but not too bad. Still on snowshoes to get around in the woods.

spud

03-27-2018, 03:07 PM

I shipped 4300 gallons this morning at 2.2%. Sap is only running 200 GPH but should run all night. Sap is now testing 2.0% so it's dropping.

Spud

GeneralStark

03-27-2018, 09:02 PM

Made another 35 gal. AR from sap collected the last three days. Puts me at about 315 for the season so far and no end in sight.... Probably about 1500 gal. but hard to say exactly given the ice in the tank. Sap flow slowed way down once it clouded up this afternoon....

mff

03-28-2018, 12:00 AM

Just under 1 GPT at 4pm, and test dropped to 1.7.

Still 35 out at midnight, so will be curious to see if the natural vacuum keeps it running tonight.

Expecting 50’s the next 4 days, with only a couple of borderline freezes.

DrTimPerkins

03-28-2018, 04:50 PM

Concentrated Monday and Tuesday. Boiled today. Started morning with 600+ gal of 37 Brix concentrate (at 23 deg F) and over 6,000 sap at 2.4 Brix in the tanks. Just finished boiling, but RO still running. Made 375 gal of mostly Golden/Delicate. No niter, easy filtering. Total of 1,320 gal so far on 4,925 taps. Will probably have another 250 gal concentrate in the bulk tank tonite before the RO shuts off. Will likely just concentrate again tomorrow and boil on Friday.

The run from yesterday through mid-morning produced over 9,250 gal of sap in 26 hrs. One of the better runs we've ever seen...and good sugar content and excellent sap quality. A few more weeks of this and we'll need more barrels.

I would never make syrup again without a refrigerated bulk tank. Totally separated the RO and evaporation processes and made work-flow MUCH better.

WestfordSugarworks

03-28-2018, 05:34 PM

MJPJ Sugars

03-28-2018, 06:01 PM

My cold/West side woke-up last night, and started out-producing the sunny-side that has been carrying the bulk of the sap this last week.

An unpleasant first today — dead squirrel in a bucket.

blissville maples

03-28-2018, 06:09 PM

Chasing lots of leaks also.....Averaging 1 gpt or so per day, nothing too exciting after the freeze we just endured, hoping some of my big trees frozen still or I'm a bit worried about gpt production levels being somewhat low, of course 18-20 degree nights with 36 degree days aren't that handy either, now we get the warmth but lose the freezing nights!!- can't win. I know the flow into the releaser isn't what it was a few weeks ago, and color is closer to dark from light Amber. Hoping for a few more good runs, trees sensing spring here in the Champlain valley I believe.

GeneralStark

03-28-2018, 07:08 PM

About 1 gpt in the last 24 hours here. It didn't really run much until the sun came out this afternoon. Still lots of snow in the woods and not much in the way of signs of spring though I did hear a Robin today for the first time in 2018. Going to wait until Friday to boil as I don't expect sap flow to be too dramatic given the lack of freezing.

Been sugaring for over two months now and no sign of it letting up in the near term. At .42 gpt for the season so far.

WestfordSugarworks

03-28-2018, 08:15 PM

General that's really high, congrats.

EBG18T

03-28-2018, 10:34 PM

We got about 0.75GPT today. Have about 400 gallon to boil from today. Bottled another 10 gal tonight, then I discovered I was out of bottles. She is heading to CDL tomorrow for more bottles since our finishing tanks are full and out of syrup storage.. next year I really need to get the RO.

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mff

03-28-2018, 11:06 PM

Another 1.5 GPT from 4pm Tuesday to 7pm today. No freeze last night, and more bubbles than sap from the line this evening. 30 degrees outside now and the sky is mostly clear.

At .31 gal of syrup per tap, all from “forest” trees, and I missed a few earlier runs while trying to decide if we would be sugaring this year. Am sold on the 3/16, and appreciative of the experiences shared here.

spud

03-29-2018, 06:32 AM

I got .5 GPT in the last 24 hours. It's slow but steady and still nice clear sap testing at 2.0%. I am at 79% of last years production. I think starting Saturday things should get much better. I hope for 3 more weeks.

Spud

tcross

03-29-2018, 07:02 AM

we got a good amount of sap yesterday. pretty steady run and still above 2%. It froze here last night. had 30 on the thermometer and all puddles were iced over so I'm hoping today will be a good day. I can't boil tonight so it'll be a long day in the sugar house tomorrow!

DrTimPerkins

03-29-2018, 10:30 AM

Dr. Tim, could you give an estimate for per gallon cost of a refrigerated tank like the one you have? I definitely like the idea of transitioning to high brix sometime in the future. Also love the idea of having fewer boils while boiling more sap at one time. The money is made in the woods and if you can concentrate labor out walking lines during these big warm spells and then wait till a cold spell to boil, you'll make a lot more money in the end.

Also how many gallons of syrup per hour have you been drawing off your rig?

Price varies quite a bit depending upon the tank size, operating condition, who moves it, etc. Can't say I know a lot about pricing these things...there is a wide range. Not a lot of them for sale, but with milk prices....who knows. Keep your eyes open on Craigslist. Our tank is nominally 650 gal, but it'll hold 702 gal filled to the brim. We put it up overhead in the sugarhouse, otherwise we'd have gone a little bigger. Compressor keeps 35 brix concentrate right around 23 deg F. Any colder and it starts to turn to slush (slush doesn't run so good through pipes).

We boil about every 2-5 days now depending upon flow. Hardly ever boil back-to-back days. Normally one of the crew members comes in early, starts the RO, and then heads out to get a load of sap (we truck sap 1/4 mile from about half our taps), then will head into the woods if necessary. I'll start boiling around 9am. Another crew member comes in around 11am-noon and takes all the measurements, then stays to help in the sugarhouse or goes into the woods (if needed). We finish boiling by 2-3pm, clean until 5pm. The crew member who came in late stays late to do the RO wash, and start the rinse. On days we don't boil, we'll do the RO and sap collection stuff only, leaving more time for the woods or data collection.

We're drawing off about 60 gal/hr. We've gone to filtering right off the rig....goes into a drawoff tank, then through the filter press into a drum. Usually have 4 drums set up to start the day. We can normally get 4-5 drums of syrup through one press, but have a second press all set up and ready for when the first press needs to be changed out.

About 4,500 gal of sap this morning (since 8pm last night). Already had 440 gal of 37 Brix concentrate in bulk tank from after we stopped boiling yesterday. Will concentrate new sap today and boil tomorrow. So that will be sap from 3pm yesterday (Wed), all the sap from last night and today, and sap from overnight tonite.

WestfordSugarworks

03-29-2018, 12:33 PM

Thanks Dr. Tim.

Things seem to have finally settled down for us, there's a few leaky saddles or valves out in the woods that need work but i'm too sick to walk around out there. Vacuum is about 28" or higher in both woods. Sap still coming in good. We will freeze friday night, hopefully no more drops popping off spouts. Every time we have a freeze in Jericho our wetline has been freezing up, then it will thaw and hundreds of gallons of sap will bombard our releaser, sap pumps can't keep up and it climbs up into the vacuum line to pump and trips moisture trap. So pretty much we need someone there every morning to close the knife valves into the woods a bit so that we keep the pump running. It's a big pain but next year we are going to redo our PVC setup and put in a sensor-activated knife valve that will close off the line to the pump so we don't always trip moisture trap.

spud

03-29-2018, 06:03 PM

Sap is still running a bit. I'm getting about .5 GPT per day. It picked up a little bit today when the sun came out for a while. It should run all night and all tomorrow till freeze up tomorrow night. Now testing 1.9%.

Spud

MJPJ Sugars

03-29-2018, 09:51 PM

My refrigerated concentrate tank :lol:

18381

sapmaple

03-30-2018, 01:05 AM

love it !!!!

spud

03-30-2018, 08:18 AM

Sap is running 90 GPH. It rained all night here. We should have a good freeze tonight and then full sun tomorrow. Looks like 4-5 good days of sap run next week with nice freeze ups at night.

Spud

DrTimPerkins

03-30-2018, 08:22 AM

About another 5,000 gal of sap came in overnight (since 4pm yesterday). Not sure of total or sugar content yet as it is still being collected. In any case, between that and the 700 gal of 37 Brix concentrate chilling in the bulk tank, we should make about 400 gal of syrup today. We start boiling in about an hour.

spud

03-31-2018, 12:43 PM

Sap started running at 10:00am. Coming in at 175 GPH and testing 1.5%. Should run all night and tomorrow until freeze up.

Spud

VT_K9

03-31-2018, 05:59 PM

We have about 400 taps on vacuum. We started February 26 this year and have made 91 gallons of syrup. The vacuum has been the very consistent at close to 27", over when colder and sometimes down to 26" on warmer days. We have not and "big" runs but they are decent. Last year we finished now with 95 gallons and the year before we finished next week with 104 gallons. The quantity of syrup says we are ok (for running about the same setup for 3 years), but it doesn't feel right not having at least a couple "big" runs...hoping there is still time.

MJPJ Sugars

04-01-2018, 11:57 AM

Happy Easter!!

Looks like the sap has stopped here in Georgia — less than .5 gallons per tap since around 7:00 last night.

Hoping I don’t offend the sap gods, but it’ll be nice to be caught-up, cleaned-up, RO rinsed, syrup jarred, and a nice, easy, quiet evening with the family... perhaps even a movie??! (Dare I think it.... LOL)

Enjoy when you can! :)

GeneralStark

04-01-2018, 01:44 PM

I boiled about 2000 gal. on friday that came in tuesday - friday and made over 30 gal. AR. Right on the line with GD.

Went to a cabin in the hills for the weekend and came back today to 1500 gal. in the tank since friday afternoon. Sap is running pretty well today. Looks like another good week for sap. Going to boil tomorrow. 10 gal away from last year's production...

mff

04-01-2018, 08:23 PM

Rather unimpressive reporting gallons at my scale, so here is more GPT observations. Saturday ran .75, it didn’t freeze overnight and today ran .33. Expecting to drop to 25 degrees tonight, and much of the coming week looks nice.

tcross

04-02-2018, 07:19 AM

sap ran o.k yesterday. I got 300 gallons Saturday of 2.5%, so that was real nice! Each night it doesn't freeze I find that I have some uncontrollable nitre problems while boiling. much worse then years pass. hopefully that clears up some, but doubtful at this point.

spud

04-02-2018, 07:36 AM

Sap ran a little over the last two days. I got .75 GPT in two days. The back side of the woods is running better then the East side. The wind the last couple of days has affected the runs. Went down to 21 last night so today it might run a bit better. Yesterday sap was testing at 1.5%. I'm not sure if I will hit last years numbers.

Spud

rhwells2003

04-02-2018, 08:28 AM

So weird how things are different from different parts of the state. Saturday was a good run for me. I got about 1.75gpt in 24 hours. Then left for the day for easter obligations yesterday and didn't get hardly anything. Hopefully with the good freeze up last night it'll be another good day.

DrTimPerkins

04-02-2018, 08:59 AM

Made 400 gal GD on Friday. Good run on Fri/Sat and some on Sunday. Have another 760 gal of 35 Brix concentrate to boil today, with another 2,000 gal of sap in the tanks to process in the RO. That'll bring us up to around 2,000 gal of syrup for the season. Still a good amount of snow on the ground and no real hot weather forecast, so things look good for at least another week or two. We've been quite a bit colder than many other sites so far this spring, so lagging a bit behind, but still have some season to go. Sap sugar still around 2.0 Brix. Hopefully the freeze overnight will bring it up a bit, but it was cold enough that I don't expect it to run until around noon. We'll start boiling in about an hour.

Afternoon Update
Made another 360 gal of syrup earlier today, putting us at 2,080 (0.42 gal/tap) so far. Right on the edge of GD/AR. Sap sugar dropped off to 1.8 Brix by this afternoon. Niter is still not too bad, but picking up some. Sap started off running fairly late today due to low overnight temperatures. Should run moderately well overnight. Will likely concentrate tomorrow again and then boil either Wed or Thurs depending upon how much comes in.

tcross

04-02-2018, 02:57 PM

I don't have a gph reading device but my sap is coming in better right now than it has all year so far.

spud

04-02-2018, 06:24 PM

I'm a little less then .5 GPT today. Sap should keep running till about 9:00pm tonight. I am hearing that North/West facing woods are running very good in my area. My South/East trees are slowing down a lot. My South/West trees are running better. I'm hoping to get another 4-5 GPT in the next two weeks or so. Time will tell. The guy I sell my sap to has made 32,000 gallons of syrup so far. He made 3000 gallons in one day. He is hoping to hit 40,000+

Spud

steve J

04-02-2018, 07:24 PM

Everything is slowing down for me and my sap is testing just over 1% so I will boil tomorrow and call it a seadon. This is most syrup I have made and my sap is up close to 40% with 15 less taps.

Parker

04-02-2018, 10:39 PM

T cross,,,put a gallon jug under your pipe going into the tank and time it. Divide 60 by the time you get..the result is how many gallons per hour

tcross

04-03-2018, 06:58 AM

thanks Parker! I could do that but with the releaser dumping my timing would probably not be real accurate, but I suppose it'd get me in the ball park. when I'm around boiling and it's running i'll time the dumps on occasion to figure out how the flow is... not real ideal sitting in my office though :). I did figure it out from the amount of time it ran and how many gallons I got in that time... put me at roughly 27gph for the 200 taps... or about 275 gallons. today should be another good day.

rhwells2003

04-03-2018, 08:23 AM

pretty good day yesterday. Got a touch over 1gpt on my vacuum system, and about 1.25gpt off my 3/16 lines. It was 25 degrees by 9pm last night. Hoping for another good day today with more rain then sun. I'm at 21gpt for the season! I always hope to hit atleast 20gpt and figure everything over that is gravy, but now that I'm over it I'm hoping for 25. We'll see.

GeneralStark

04-03-2018, 08:30 AM

Pretty decent run yesterday with almost 1.25 gpt between when it thawed and then froze last night. Coming up on 25k gal. sap for the season. Boiled about 1800 gal. sap yesterday and made about 30 gal DR just over the line from AR. I miss the old dark amber option...

I'm now 20 gal. over last year's production and 5 gal. away from .5gpt. Have certainly begun the slide to the finish, but how long will it be before the trees bud? I think I may have another week.

smokeyamber

04-03-2018, 08:38 AM

Looking like things are drying up for my buckets, collected about 20 gallons for all 70 taps and the weather was prime for it to run. I will boil what I have in the next couple of days and may pull taps. Sap still looks nice and clear so likely the trees I tapped way back in mid feb are just healing up ? Should end up with around nine gallons, which is close to last year so no complaints here.

peteinvermont

04-03-2018, 08:45 AM

MJPJ Sugars

04-03-2018, 05:55 PM

2 gallons per tap the last 48 hours. Still crystal clear and clean. I'm just short of 22 gallons of sap per tap since March 6th -- almost 160% of last year. Small sample size, sure... but like my best Italian friend would say, "thatsa lotta buckets!"

steve J

04-03-2018, 06:26 PM

I am officially done I collected around 40% more sap while tapping 15 less trees. So I am happy! 80% of my trees are red maple and most of those have shut off the sugars are still running clear. The last batch of syrup was pretty dark!

spud

04-04-2018, 07:57 AM

GeneralStark

04-04-2018, 09:58 AM

Thanks Spud. Every season has its challenges but the stars have aligned here. Now I need to figure out where I am going to put any more syrup....

Sap ran ok yesterday but the pattern this season of no sun, no big run is continuing....

I do have almost 1800 gal. from the last couple days to boil later. Starting to see slime build up on some south facing spouts that were tapped in mid January, but they are still giving sap.

tcross

04-04-2018, 10:07 AM

ended up getting 1.75 gallons per tap yesterday. still 18"-20" of snow on the ground and buds look tight... even on my reds. I think we could go for a bit longer, but my wood pile is diminishing quickly. another 8-10 gallons of syrup and we'll have more than we can sell. it's been a good year so far.

smokeyamber

04-04-2018, 11:49 AM

Boiled last night and almost out of wood so this season is almost done. Didn't check buckets, but suspect only a few are still running. May collect after the rain is done and see what the sap looks like. Also will likely drain the pan before I try to boil the last collections just to be safe. Last 3 gallons were getting very dark, and I suspect my sugar content is way down given the length between draws.

steve J

04-04-2018, 12:32 PM

smokey my sugar was done to 1% yesterday and like you long time between draws. I have not process the last couple gallons yet but I think it is much darker than the rest. Most of my reds have stopped running which I believe is what you have . But my sugars where still running very clear. I am going back up tomorrow to bottle and also boil off what is in the pan.

DrTimPerkins

04-04-2018, 04:50 PM

Froze here last night around 9pm. Made another 230 gal AR today from sap collected between Monday night and today at noon, putting us at 2,310 for the season, or 0.47 gal/tap. Sap sugar content holding at 1.8 Brix. Didn't run much today. With the cold we won't be getting any sap until Monday.

WestfordSugarworks

04-04-2018, 05:42 PM

General, if you're looking for barrels I have 3 gently used 40 gallon Barinox drums i'm looking to sell. Been filled twice over the last three seasons.

spud

04-05-2018, 06:25 AM

Just for giggles and grins I re-tapped 5 East Facing trees on a lateral line two days ago. I did not ream the existing tap hole but drilled a new hole. These trees stopped running about a week ago. Now for the last two days they are running like crazy. Im wondering if PMRC or anyone has ever charted the additional gallons a tree would give after being tapped a second time? I know re-tapping is not a good idea and I would not advise it. Im just interested to see if these five trees will run all next week and to the end of the season. I have reamed tap holes before and had little success. I have Fall tapped and then Spring tapped the same trees before with some success. I have never pulled dried up taps in early April and re-tapped trees though. If It was possible to get another 10 GPT then that would be something.

Spud

GeneralStark

04-05-2018, 08:50 AM

Thanks Westford. I think I am all set but will let you know if I want to take you up on the offer.

I boiled about 2000 gal. last night and made 27 gal. of DR. Some real nice Grade B type DR and the first of that for the season. Lots of yeast in the sap tank when I cleaned it out...

Last night's boil puts us at .52 gpt so far. According to our sponsor it looks like many VT producers are doing well this season:

https://www.themaplenews.com/story/season-update-7-vermont-on-a-good-pace;-crop-should-be-another-whopper/199/

DrTimPerkins

04-05-2018, 11:19 AM

Im wondering if PMRC or anyone has ever charted the additional gallons a tree would give after being tapped a second time? I know re-tapping is not a good idea and I would not advise it.

We are currently in the first year of a 3-year study looking at timing of tapping (fall, winter, spring) and a wide variety of strategies to keep tapholes viable longer. No results to report yet.

VTnewguy

04-05-2018, 12:38 PM

Debating whether it's worth boiling off the last run of sap. Sugar content was down to 1%. With no RO that's a lot of wood. Hopefully this freeze will get a few more days.

MJPJ Sugars

04-05-2018, 02:11 PM

Taps are dry today... 1st completely dry day since 3-21.

Yesterday, boiled-up Monday & Tuesday's haul -- surprisingly light.

Next few days look like ideal beginning-of-season weather :)

alexa.holleran

04-05-2018, 05:10 PM

32º and barely running here today, but I'm thinking there are a couple of good days left before my trees bud out. I've been finishing all DR lately, and what's in my pans is super dark and cruddy, so I'm considering emptying and cleaning them out before boiling again on Saturday. I'm new to continuous-flow, so I'm looking for a little advice on whether that's worth it. If I empty and clean, and filter what's in the pans, can I stick it back in for the boil, rather than re-sweetening the pans? If I do, and if by chance my sap runs fairly sweet after this decent freeze up, can the process really progress to lighter grade from darker grade, even though it's all mixing like that? I'm having a bunch of folks swing by for an open house, of sorts, on Saturday, so I can't really swing another 15 hours of boiling to re-sweeten the pans. I'd rather just keep pulling dark stuff and scraping crud off my pre-filters. But if cleaning my pan would make a big difference, I'm game. I've only finished 13+ gallons since I last cleaned the pans, but the dark crud buildup is remarkable.

Thanks for sharing your wisdom, folks!

wurmdert

04-06-2018, 06:41 AM

Super Sapper

04-06-2018, 06:54 AM

GeneralStark

04-06-2018, 08:07 AM

General, Was your sugar % Low. Seems 25,000 gallons should have done better than .5 gallon a tap.

Great season either way. Congrats.

Thanks. And yes, my sugar content has been a bit lower this year than is typical for me. That said, in terms of what 25k gal. of sap "should have" yielded, I can only say what it did yield. I have given up trying to correlate sap quantity and sugar content with gallons of syrup produced. It just seems easier to make the syrup as the mathematical equation never works out...

GeneralStark

04-06-2018, 08:11 AM

I would drain and filter the sweet in your pan and the soak your pan in vinegar/water to clean. Niter builds up on the pan and you need to clean occasionally. How often depends on the amount of niter formed. Last year I needed to clean every 300 gallons of sap, this year I went through 2000 before first cleaning but more frequent lately. You can put your sweet back after the pan is cleaned and go from there.

I personally clean my syrup pans after every boil by soaking them in vinegar for about 24 hours and then scraping any remaining niter off with a copper scrubbie and /or a copper pipe scraper I made. I only occasionally clean the flue pan during the season if it starts to collect lots of niter sludge.

How you clean will likely depend upon how your rig is set up, but as Super Sapper says, the niter scale should be removed on occasion as it will reduce your boil rate and it can negatively affect syrup flavor.

billyinvt

04-06-2018, 01:28 PM

This is the same pan that I boil on, and I love it.....but.....It is not an easy set up to clean mid season. There are no valves or gates to separate syrup section from flue section, and no drain in the drop flue. When you are thinking you might like to get some "crud" out, you should run it nice and shallow before shut down. Once cooled you can start draining it by filtering the sweet through cheesecloth into containers. Make sure you know which container you filled first, second, third etc so you can reintroduce them in reverse order to try and re-establish the gradient.

alexa.holleran

04-06-2018, 04:33 PM

Thanks, guys! That's notably different advice than I'd gotten previously -- namely, that I probably didn't need to clean my pans throughout a season, given the small size of my operation. But if you're cleaning every boil to every few hundred gallons, then I'm well overdue. No wonder I have so much buildup! I just picked up a bunch of vinegar and will be cleaning them out tonight. Credit to the wisdom of my sugaring elders! :)

alexa.holleran

04-06-2018, 04:35 PM

BillyinVT, sounds like a very similar setup you & I have, both taps and evaporator! How much syrup have you finished this season? Any GD?

GeneralStark

04-08-2018, 06:41 PM

Up to 1.25 gpt since....wendesday. Most of that came in yesterday afternoon after the trees thawed. Nights in the high teens, cloudy days with marginal sun, fresh snow and temps in the mid 30s just aren't cutting it. It did run hard for about an hour yesterday evening when the sun did come out, but then it froze up quick.

I for one am ready for spring but it seems like sugaring season is going backwards this year...

billyinvt

04-08-2018, 09:28 PM

BillyinVT, sounds like a very similar setup you & I have, both taps and evaporator! How much syrup have you finished this season? Any GD?I finished around 70 gallons this season. There was a brief 2 gallon GD draw at the beginning. I am maxed out on this set-up without an RO. I am reading up on this forum to build a simple one this summer.

blissville maples

04-09-2018, 07:23 AM

Sap flow really cutting out. Started noticing a note of funny flavor so I went out and pulled all my reds, probably 400 out of 3300. Curious to see if they were the culprit as their bud heads are about ready to pop, happened last year also. We're down to the final week I believe, the weather going to change fast iver next week and half I believe. We have made 1320 gallons so far which has exceeded my expectations for this year, no final tally but around 90,000 gallons of sap!

DrTimPerkins

04-09-2018, 10:08 AM

Yup...the lady of large stature is warming up her vocal cords. We still have 18" of snow on the ground, but looks like a strong warming trend after Wed. Hopefully we'll make it through for at least another week or so. Been good so far, but we've made hardly any dark syrup.

WestfordSugarworks

04-09-2018, 02:12 PM

Wow, 18" of snow still over there. What's your elevation there, Dr. Tim? We have patches of up to 6" in both our woods but other bare spots. Some spots probably up to my knees in the hemlocks. I hope we can make it through this warm spell.

Looks like it won't freeze from Tuesday or Wednesday through next Tuesday. But showing cloudy each day. I attached a screenshot of what our forecast looks like for Jericho. Can anyone explain what actually would cause the sap to turn bad in quality? Will it be changes in red maple sap composition due to the flowering process? Or something else? Some years I think the sap just gets too warm and turns sour on us, but the temps forecasted won't make that happen in the next week or so. So i'm curious, if the sap did turn, what is technically causing that. The more I think about it, the more I think we will make it through. We ran check valves this year so sap flow shouldn't be an issue (I hope). It would be nice to be able to keep pulling good sap through this. We are just above 0.42 gals per tap in our Westford woods (no idea what Jericho is), and I think we'll hit 0.5 gpt which i'll be really happy about. That woods has never hit that mark in 20 or 25 years+ of production.

18516

skixcvt

04-09-2018, 03:10 PM

We have called it a season here in Southern VT. About 1700’ in elevation, east and south facing slopes.

We’re only stopping due to other obligations (and almost out of wood!), flavor was still excellent, sap around 2%. Probably a bit higher after these last couple nights in the low teens.

We made 85.5 gallons on approx 300 taps. No vacuum (didn’t set the 3/16” up quite right). Tapped end of February (missed an excellent run or two), started with AR, quickly went to DR (would have been dark amber on the old grading scale), then we had 18 days off and about 50” of snow, brining it back to AR. We finished with DR, the darkest we’ve made in at least 8 years.

We still have about 12” of snow, but southern slopes are almost bare (again).
We will be giving sap to a friend who hasn’t had the best season. His west facing trees (1100’) are finished.

GeneralStark

04-09-2018, 06:50 PM

I hope we can make it through this warm spell.

Warm spell? I would be happy if it would warm up enough for the the trees to actually thaw and run for more than an hour or so... Even with today's sun, this polar air mass is so cold that only small trees were really running. I don't think it's going to warm up enough to really do much for another couple days. Even then, without the sun, I'm skeptical. Trees respond to more than just temp. in terms of budding and I think that for those of us in the Champlain Valley, we don't have much time left. With 50's and rain forecasted later this week for several days, I think the end is in sight, but I'm not convinced it will ever run that well before the trees start to bud...

I'm not complaining. It has been a great season... I'm ready for spring.

Msboucha

04-10-2018, 03:34 PM

I'm starting to question whether or not the trees haven't just started sealing up. We were having decent flow before this last cold spell and now half haven't leaked with what little warm up we have been getting, although it doesn't really feel as warm as the thermometer says. Anxious to see what later this week brings for temeprature, these 18 degree mornings in Franklin County are getting a bit old.

spud

04-10-2018, 06:36 PM

I got about 50 gallons of sap today. It seems like they want to run but it has to warm up a bit. Tomorrow should be warm enough but we need some sun and no wind. I think there is still hope.

Spud

GeneralStark

04-10-2018, 07:06 PM

The sap ran more consistently today than it has in a week. Over 400 gal. so far since things thawed late morning and coming in steady. I do have some tapholes that have dried up. Mostly 3/16 with new drops and smart spouts where I have had issues with drops disconnecting during cold spells. Not as much of an issue with 3/16 and cv spouts however or on brand new 3/16. Seems like the sap backing up in the lines during freeze up is the likely culprit. I "refreshed" 6 tapholes on two 3/16 lines and it was like Christmas day....

I have over 1500 gal. that has come in since last wednesday 4/4 and am going to boil tomorrow. I had some niter sludge build up in the flue pan so I filtered the contents of the pan and cleaned it out. I suspect it is dark syrup from here on in given how much yeast has been scrubbed out of the lines the last week. I also have a pretty solid chunk of ice in the tank still.... I have never seen that in April before.

MJPJ Sugars

04-10-2018, 08:10 PM

.94 gallons per tap today after .74 yesterday -- both after tossing a bunch of 2" thick pucks from the previous couple of days. Sap is cold and crystal clear, but a good amount of yeast is ending-up in the concentrate tank. Hasn't had any effect on the flavor of the finished product that we can tell, although the odor is more and more noticeable during the boil. Sugar isn't "climbing back up," despite the repeated freeze-thaw cycle, sticking around 1.25%.

I'm just over 25 gpt of sap, and .42 gallons of syrup per tap so far. All done the old-fashioned way... with child labor :lol:

Last boil this weekend? Buds are tight... forecast is uselesss... who knows? I do know trout season is coming one way or another.

WestfordSugarworks

04-11-2018, 12:10 AM

I hope we can make syrup through the 20th. Kinda feel like that would be a first and a last for us. Weather forecast looks colder than it did yesterday but the next few days should be good at least. Sap never ran great in our Jericho woods but ran okay in Westford, boiled for the first time in a week and made about 60 gallons of AR right on the line with DR. Good flavor still.

Saw a few cool things today in the woods. Beech seeds and maple seeds both germinating with 1" tap roots. Some plant I didn't recognize starting to leaf out. And an invasive honeysuckle plant up at 1200' or so almost on the ridge in Jericho, leafing out a few small green leaves. Pulled that out and hung it.

Speaking of invasive plants, I now own Vermont Invasive Management and am actively looking for work in the area. I'm a licensed pesticide applicator in VT and treat all types of invasives. Send me a message if you are interested in me checking out your property. Invasives suck.

wdchuck

04-11-2018, 06:19 AM

Ok, I'm gonna stick my neck out here......East facing slopes are bare in our woods, all other areas have good snow cover. We haven't really had an extended warm up, so I think the frost is still in the ground..... And our sap runs, although good, haven't been serious gushers.....The neighbors have always said that sugaring isn't over until the ice goes out on West Hill Pond, and its still looking totally solid......Snow is still lingering in the fields around the sugarhouse.......All signs in my 'hood point to more sugaring season, so relying on that increasing gray in my beard as a sign of wisdom, not age, I'll say it- Big sap run when it finally warms up!!....Lets see if I know what I know what the hell I'm talking about...

WestfordSugarworks

04-11-2018, 07:57 AM

I'll say it- Big sap run when it finally warms up!! I hope so!

drewlamb

04-11-2018, 07:58 AM

We haven't boiled since the 5th and have had only small trickles since, including yesterday. 18 deg here this morning. Similar to you Dr. Tim, we have made only GD and AR, and are hopeful for some darker syrup in this next, hopefully not last, run. At 0.31 gal/tap for the season.

DrTimPerkins

04-11-2018, 09:33 AM

Still too cold up on the hill (like most of this spring so far). Forecast went from cold, to hot, back to cold again projected over the next week, but looks like we might have some decent flows. Only 2,567 gal of sap since last week (a pittance). Holding at around 1.8 Brix. Running the RO to free up some space in the tanks. Hoping it opens up in the next couple of hours/days.

peteinvermont

04-11-2018, 11:51 AM

I pulled 'em....I'm going fishing....

tcross

04-11-2018, 01:20 PM

my last boil will be tonight. then it's clean up time and time to get the garden going and get the golf clubs and fishin rod out! by the looks of our trees and snow pack, we could have a few weeks left, but we've made more than we sell each year so it's time to move on. good luck to everyone still at it!

MJPJ Sugars

04-11-2018, 07:37 PM

1.25 GPT of sap today and still running solid.

But the air was very different today... Spring has arrived. Buds on the reds have doubled or so in size in the last 24-36 hours... saw some weird little black bees that marked the end of last season for the first time today... methinks Mother N. is going to do her darnedest over the next few days to catch-up to where she thinks she should be.

GeneralStark

04-11-2018, 09:48 PM

A good run today. A little over 1 gpt since things thawed and still coming in strong. I boiled the nearly 1800 gal that came in the last 7 days and made 15 gal. DR and 10 gal. AR. Despite the yeast in the tank, the grade came up pretty dramatically. Sap was going into the ro at 33 degrees...

Sugar content is down but the sap is perfectly clear and the boiling and filtering was real easy.

spud

04-12-2018, 08:16 AM

I froze last night so I hope to see some sap today. Things are really slowing down for me. If I don't get much today I will shut the pump off. I am at about 90% of last years numbers. I had a ton of problems this year with Vacuum pump and releaser. I replaced the pump and now plan to buy an electric releaser for next season. It's fun to see just how well some of you are doing. General I think you may hit .6 and the would be great. Look forward to seeing more end of season numbers from everyone.

Spud

rhwells2003

04-12-2018, 08:27 AM

I hear you spud, a couple of these last couple days I thought would be great and they've been sub par for me for sure. I'm not sure whats going on. I might have gotten 1/4gpt yesterday. odd. But like you I had a slight freeze last night. we'll see what today brings

GeneralStark

04-12-2018, 09:44 AM

Spud you are going to like that electric releaser.

No real freeze here over night though the flow did slow way down. Up to almost 1.5 gpt since late morning yesterday. I think it is possible I may hit .6 this year. At .56 now...

There are more and more signs of spring every day so not sure how much longer the trees will stay dormant. We have a large native elderberry shrub whose buds usually start to swell before the maples do and it is just starting to pop. The wetlands below however are still full of ice so not sure what the peepers are up to. The forecast sure doesn't look too spring like, but at this point anything can happen.

DrTimPerkins

04-12-2018, 10:38 AM

Spud....I agree with the General....you will like the electric releaser. We have a CDL with submersible pump. Been bulletproof since we installed it. However, because we like to keep our lines separate and monitor sap flow from each section, it doesn't serve well in the research setting. Neither the RO room or our pockets are big enough for 4 of them, so next year we will likely sell it and change over fully to Hydra releasers (we are testing one this year) since they are smaller, less expensive, and allow us to track flow from multiple sections better.

Trees finally thawed out enough to start running yesterday around noon, but didn't really take run hard before it froze up again around midnite (see attached graph from our Smartrek tank sensor). Nonetheless, we got 3,684 gal of sap at 1.8 Brix. Concentrating that now to add to the 147 gal of 37 Brix concentrate already in the bulk tank. Together that should put us right around 0.5 gal/tap. Sap is starting to run in again fairly well today early on (again, you can see the uptick in the graph at around 7am before we started to empty the tank), and should continue overnight, so hoping for full sap tanks come tomorrow morning.

18528

MJPJ Sugars

04-12-2018, 07:14 PM

No Mas!

Over 3 GPT in the last 48 hours — no freeze last night. Still running solid.

I’m over 28 gallons of sap per tap... not at this very long, but after a couple years in the 13-16 range, this year is an eye opener: probably a little too much for this bucket-lugger. If all this yeast doesn’t foul the syrup, I’ll have made more than the last two years combined.

Sunday Rock Maple

04-12-2018, 09:17 PM

Not a Vermonter and so my apologies for intruding, but what is a Hydra releaser?

mellondome

04-12-2018, 09:45 PM

Not a Vermonter and so my apologies for intruding, but what is a Hydra releaser?http://www.northwoodsugarworks.com/hydra-releaser.html

Flat Lander Sugaring

04-13-2018, 06:01 AM

we got 1.654676259 per tap in last 48 hours all gravity on 3/16, 230 gal 1.4% on 139 taps west facing slope with 15% grade. Gathering today and pulling taps this weekend.
looking like .33 a tap.
we missed the first big run in Feb. but hey can't complain, lost high vac pump second week of March so used old milk pump for rest of season. Have to say that old Delaval 77/76 did 24" non stop, looking to rebuild this summer.
so we gathered approx 9400 sap, so lets say we lost 20% of our production due to vacuum pump issue, that would have been another 1880 gal which would have been approx.40 more gal syrup. Our sugar the whole season until just recently was 1.8%.
So 240/600=.4 a tap It is always nice to dream :lol:

tcross

04-13-2018, 07:07 AM

I'm done here. we've made more than I can sell so we pulled the plug Wednesday. My lines are still gravity feeding the tank and off my 200 taps I got 90 gallons yesterday. that would of been a great run with the pump on! look like some nasty weather the next couple day here. 5" snow and 2" ice... the season should last a little while longer up in my neck of the woods.

spud

04-13-2018, 08:13 AM

I was able to get just shy of a half gallon per tap yesterday. Sap is testing 1.5%. I guess I will leave the pump running just to see what happens next week.

Spud

drewlamb

04-13-2018, 08:51 AM

Had a big run here yesterday on our new lines, especially overnight. Around 1.5 gal/tap. Other bush on new spouts but older drops are drying out. Probably only 0.5 per tap there. Pumping now. Should have around 2500 to boil today. Guessing folks further north at 1200' and higher will have sap through next week. Conditions look good and I don't see any bud swell on the sugars. Hoping for darker syrup.

DrTimPerkins

04-13-2018, 09:01 AM

Late-morning update
We got about 4,711 gal (off 4,929 taps) of 1.9 Brix sap overnight. 5/16" tubing sections running well. 3/16" sections not so good. Newer tubing running better than older tubing.

Boiling starting around 11am. Should make around 220-230 gal of syrup, which will put us at around 0.52 gal/tap.

Msboucha

04-13-2018, 09:16 AM

1.25gpt in 12 hrs overnight, 1.6gpt in the last 24hrs..our single biggest run this season.....go figure. Actually overflowed one 5g bucket with 2 taps..too bad we've had a few taps dry up/pulled due to budding. Right around 0.7gpt syrup wise this far. Keep on keeping on!

GeneralStark

04-13-2018, 09:43 AM

Sap flow slowed way down here but still running steady. I'm also seeing a slowing or stopping of older 3/16 tubing, though cv spouts are helping, but new is still chugging along.

I tested sap sugar with my new hydrometer yesterday and still at about 1.5 and sap is still very clear. About to fire up the ro and will boil later today.

Possible marginal freeze tonight, but very likely tomorrow night. If the trees stay dormant, that could extend us into next week...

DrTimPerkins

04-13-2018, 09:56 AM

Right around 0.7gpt syrup wise this far. Keep on keeping on!

A good example of "size matters."

https://www.themaplenews.com/story/understanding-the-relationship-between-tree-size-and-yield/187/

Msboucha

04-13-2018, 11:23 AM

A good example of "size matters."

https://www.themaplenews.com/story/understanding-the-relationship-between-tree-size-and-yield/187/

Thanks for the article. For sure, these are not "spring chickens"..

drewlamb

04-13-2018, 06:52 PM

Made 45 gallons of AR from around 2400 gallons of sap. Sugar at 1.7. Though most of the sap came yesterday, there was trickle all the way back to the 5th, and based on the yeasty scum in the tanks, I figured it would go darker for sure. Nope. Scrubbed the tanks clean and am ready for whatever comes next! Super messy weather coming, but next week looks big.

WestfordSugarworks

04-13-2018, 08:38 PM

Spud, that's what I like to hear. Never give up!

We are at 0.45 gal per tap in our small bush and will hit 0.5 gal per tap by mid next week if we can keep going. I think we'll be able to, don't see why not. Red maple buds look fine and it definitely feels like sugaring season still. Flavor has changed a bit but still not at all what I would consider off flavored. Right on the line between AR/DR last night. Sap has been at 1.2. Boils been going so smooth this year, it's been nice. Low niter, easy to filter, low foam, draws very steady. It's almost too easy being the sugarhouse, the most work we have to do is cleaning out barrels before filling. Hope everyone stays good through next week and makes a lot of syrup.

GiddingsHill

04-13-2018, 08:42 PM

Sunday Rock Maple

04-13-2018, 09:03 PM

A good example of "size matters."

https://www.themaplenews.com/story/understanding-the-relationship-between-tree-size-and-yield/187/

Very linear, was your n large enough to provide a decent r squared?

Msboucha

04-13-2018, 10:37 PM

Low niter, easy to filter

Lucky! The niter has been out of control this year. Thought for sure something was wrong on our end until talking to some others around Franklin County, only to find we were not alone. I'd say it has improved some since mid March, but still worse than the past couple years.

Flat Lander Sugaring

04-13-2018, 11:07 PM

All done rough estimate 205.

spud

04-14-2018, 06:51 AM

A good example of "size matters."

https://www.themaplenews.com/story/understanding-the-relationship-between-tree-size-and-yield/187/

I enjoyed that article. The chart seems to be spot on with my production and tree size.

Spud

GeneralStark

04-14-2018, 10:03 AM

Sap flow has slowed way down with no freeze in a couple nights. Only about 300 gal. since 2 pm yesterday. Boiled about 1800 gal. yesterday and made 15 gal. DR and 10 gal. AR. Flavor still good but not like it has been the rest of the season. Things are starting to change and I suspect the syrup flavor will degrade in the coming days.

Looks like we'll get a reset and then see what happens. Have at least one more boil possibly Monday or Tuesday. Up to .59...

WestfordSugarworks

04-14-2018, 10:32 AM

'been a couple seasons since I checked this forum, but I've been awful curious as to how different parts of the state are doing lately. Looks like lots of folks are getting a good crop.
We're still running well here, sugar is low, 1.4 today, but getting a lot of sap. As of this morning we're at .57 gal per tap. Beautiful clear sap today. I'll be curious to see what we get next week.

What's your elevation? A few weeks ago I had heard people at higher elevations, like above 1000', were not in great shape. Had just been too cold. Seems like a lot of people at lower elevations in Franklin county are doing pretty well.

Ultimatetreehugger

04-14-2018, 11:36 AM

I'm around 1400 and this season has been tough. I'm at .25 per tap.

MJPJ Sugars

04-14-2018, 05:59 PM

The Beefy Baroness is Belting it Out...

We're at 300 feet, and that must've been the Goldilocks Zone this year, just over the Chittenden border in Franklin County. Hung 31 buckets on March 6th, last collection on 4-12 (5 weeks + 2 days):

28.02 gallons of sap per tap made
.50 gallons of syrup per tap.

I'm sure I can stretch it out at least one more week, but that'll get awfully expensive, what with the divorce lawyers and all that... :lol: And considering that's more syrup than I've made in the last two years combined (with only a couple more taps...), I think I can safely say I'm tapped-out.

There was a distinct change in boiling aroma from the stuff we collected on Wednesday the 12th -- sap ran all night from the 11th, and the daytime temp hit the low 50's on the 12th. We'd gotten pretty used to the "bready" yeast aroma the last couple of weeks, but this stuff produced a faint whiff of vinegar in the concentrate tank and the sugar shack -- as good a reason as any to use as an excuse to call it quits... but here's the kicker: the boss is telling me this is her favorite batch of the year: very dark, gooey and mapley-- strong maple flavor. So go figure.

As in years prior, it's been tremendously enjoyable and informative keeping-up with the large and small alike here on the forum. Great experience.

Thank you!!

JQ

DrTimPerkins

04-15-2018, 01:12 PM

Very linear, was your n large enough to provide a decent r squared?

Duh....not our first research rodeo. :D

Sample size was 80 trees in 2016 and 50 in 2017 (and 50 more in progress this year). Correlation (r-squared) was 0.70 and 0.78, respectively for syrup yield vs tree diameter. Highly significant trends.

DrTimPerkins

04-15-2018, 01:13 PM

I enjoyed that article. The chart seems to be spot on with my production and tree size.

Thanks Spud. Appreciate the comment and confirmation.

DrTimPerkins

04-15-2018, 01:25 PM

What's your elevation? A few weeks ago I had heard people at higher elevations, like above 1000', were not in great shape. Had just been too cold. Seems like a lot of people at lower elevations in Franklin county are doing pretty well.

That matches what we've been hearing. People with some elevation and those more towards the northeast had a slow start. Mark Isselhardt (UVM Maple Extension Specialist at PMRC) does a season update periodically https://vermontmaplebulletin.wordpress.com/

We've had a bunch of days where others have reported flows, but our elevation kept it just a bit cold. On the flipside, we got a bunch of snow in the last couple of big storms, so it's been keeping it cool and the flows have been good since. Up to 0.51 gal/tap now, and still coming in. Hoping the end of season is still a week or more out there, but this is the time of year when things can happen quickly. One hot sunny day could finish things off, but at this point, our forecast looks pretty good (near freezing nights, low-mid 40s daytime highs) through next Saturday. Flows have dropped off some as usual for this time of year, but it's still coming in, and still decent sugar content (1.8-2.0 Brix) for us. We haven't made a drop of anything darker than AR, so could actually use some barrels of dark stuff with good strong flavor. I don't see any problem getting to 0.55 gal/tap or better, but hoping for 0.61, which means over 3,000 gal syrup for us (which would be a new volume record).

Got about another 2,500 gal of sap already sitting in the tanks from flow Friday afternoon/night. Will concentrate it to 37 Brix tomorrow and send it up to the bulk tank and wait until probably around Wed/Thurs to boil again. We like to wait until we have 450+ gal of concentrate before firing up the rig. The new Lapierre Volcano 4' x 12' chews through it pretty fast.

We made a number of changes in our sugarhouse this year, with a bunch more to come. I'll be talking about some of those at Lapierre and at H2O Open Houses in a couple of weeks, assuming the sap stops running soon enough for me to crunch all the numbers we've been collecting (working on getting some of the data input into my computer today).

GiddingsHill

04-15-2018, 02:32 PM

What's your elevation? A few weeks ago I had heard people at higher elevations, like above 1000', were not in great shape. Had just been too cold. Seems like a lot of people at lower elevations in Franklin county are doing pretty well.

The highest point I have piped is at 1309' and the lowest is our tank building is at 639'. Our lower woods tend to be colder, hold snow longer and come on later in the season. I think this has more to do with being the very bottom of a valley than it's elevation. However, this year, we have seen a number of days when only the lower woods ran. My house is at about 950 feet, and I am often amazed when I ride the wheeler the 1/3rd of a mile between the house and the tanks how abrupt the temperature change is about half way down the hill, its like stepping in and out of a walk-in freezer. Needless to say this makes our woods a challenge to manage, and our setup is evolving (slowly) to accommodate the low angle, colder, bottom woods which is prone to freeze first and thaw last, without backing up the upper woods which thaws earlier and freezes last.

WestfordSugarworks

04-15-2018, 05:15 PM

Thanks Spud. Appreciate the comment and confirmation.

Yeah I liked the article too Dr. Tim, very helpful and interesting. I've looked at it several times since and it makes me feel a little better about our production per tap. I feel that we do nearly as well as we can in terms of optimizing sap production, but our numbers have never been quite as high as some producers. We have new tubing that is installed well with 3-4 taps per lateral max, we stay on top of any issues that come up with slope, we are very on top of leaks for the most part. A lot of it comes down to tree size. We have a lot of super dense red maple stands that are tapped and these just never will give us the sap we want.

Your study is definitely going to inform our future decisions on minimum tree size that we will tap. So thanks.

We are about 150 gallons away from 0.5 gal per tap in our Westford woods, looking forward to hitting that number hopefully on Tuesday, as we never have achieved that before there.

blissville maples

04-15-2018, 08:40 PM

Yes, interesting article indeed....and as Westford said I have alot of smaller dense reds and these score even less I'm sure.

tcross

04-16-2018, 07:24 AM

I'm at 1200', north/north east facing and we've had a pretty good year. I stopped and untapped Wednesday only because we've made enough syrup where we won't be able to sell it all if we continue to boil. I'm at .38 gpt and we've got some season left! if we don't get a lot of sun, a few weeks. I had a few really hard runs where we've had to turn the pump off just because we wouldn't have been able to get to all the sap before it spoiled. we could be at .5gpt without a problem. it's time for me to set up my sugarhouse to be able to sell sap if needed!

spud

04-16-2018, 08:01 AM

Sounds like you had a good season tcross. I hope you have a nice summer. My wife and I go to Derby at times to eat at that Italian restaurant in the Shaws parking lot. I love their chowder with blue crab.

Spud

GeneralStark

04-16-2018, 08:25 AM

Things are just starting to thaw out here after a two day hiatus. We had a decent freezing rain event here and now the ice is coming off the trees with the winds we are having. Supposed to get pretty strong. We already had a big snag come down, graze the house and crush our wood shed. Fortunately it is just a temporary pallet and metal roofing shed. I think we'll be lucky if we can get through this wind storm without the power going out.....

tcross

04-16-2018, 09:39 AM

Thanks Spud! I hope you have a nice summer as well! I'm looking forward to getting the garden going... just wish mother nature would help out. I believe you are talking about "Pie and Pasta" in the Shaws parking lot. they make some good food, that's for sure! Nice folks as well! Good luck to everyone still at it and to those cleaning up... by far my least favorite activity. be safe out there... bout 1/4" to 3/8" of ice on everything here and big wind... not a good mix.

DrTimPerkins

04-16-2018, 10:57 AM

Yup...that would be "Pie and Pasta." I have a nephew who works there. We try to go at least 3-4 times each summer. We go to the "Eastside" more frequently though. Most of the family is around the general area (Newport, Barton, Westmore). My wife and I have a house on the lake in Newport we spend most weekends at (except during tax and sugaring seasons). She is retiring in about a month, and we'll be moving there permanently at the end of May (assuming sugaring season ever ends).

blissville maples

04-16-2018, 06:03 PM

Well not as much sap as expected today, I believe that will be it for me unless something drastic happens very shortly. That will put us at 1422 gallons of syrup on 3300 taps. 2 of the better 'bushes, a total of 1800 taps with 150 reds, produced 58,500 gallons Of sap, just under .55gpt . Other bush with more reds and probably 200 trees less than 6" in which I'm trying to irraticate only produced .3 per tap. First year with a half a gallon per tap so that's a nice improvement!!

Hope everyone else had a good year as well.....

GeneralStark

04-17-2018, 07:52 PM

Sap has been running pretty well here the last 24 hours with a little over 1.25 gpt. Tapholes are now 2.5-3 months old. Going to boil tomorrow and could very well be the last of the season.

Sunday Rock Maple

04-17-2018, 09:50 PM

Duh....not our first research rodeo. :D

Sample size was 80 trees in 2016 and 50 in 2017 (and 50 more in progress this year). Correlation (r-squared) was 0.70 and 0.78, respectively for syrup yield vs tree diameter. Highly significant trends.

Thanks Dr Tim,

I was expecting crown size to be a large second factor that would conflate with diameter, but most stands may be fairly similar in that regard I expect -- I know ours is.

spud

04-18-2018, 05:53 AM

DrTimPerkins

04-18-2018, 08:09 AM

Thats going to be a long drive to work for you. How many more years will you be at PMRC?. I wish you and your wife the best. You now can enjoy your morning coffee staring out at the lake.

Takes me about 35 min now, more if traffic is congested (coming from Williston). Newport will be about an hr drive, maybe 1:05. My father worked for VTRANS most of his life, so it's pretty well ingrained in me that if the roads are bad, stay home. I'll probably work at home a bit more (my laptop travels well), and plan to start taking vacation days that I just lose now. My wife had far fewer vacation days than I do, and she is an accountant, so busy from Jan-March (she doesn't do taxes....it's a special field called "captive insurance accounting"), and then I'm busy from Feb-April, so we pretty much don't take any time off for half the year.

The plan, as of right now, is to retire June 30, 2021, but that might change a little one way or the other.

Yup....morning coffee looking at the lake....shot of Bailey's for cream (on weekends). View off the back step is below looking almost due North. Most everything you see over the water is Canada.

Sap ran half-way decent yesterday afternoon, freezing up around 8pm. Got about 5,000 gal sap to concentrate this morning from sap that came in the past couple of days (will update this post with better measurements once I have them). Still looking like we'll be good through the weekend -- a bit too cold if anything -- unless it turns buddy before then. Mid-week next week it starts to get warm, so probably won't go much beyond that....which is good. I have to input and analyze a pile of data, and put together a couple of presentations in time for Open Houses just a couple of days later. Very short turn-around time.

Late-morning update: 2,160 gallons of sap at 1.6 Brix from flow yesterday afternoon/early-evening. RO is running with concentrate headed to cold bulk tank. Probably will hold off boiling until Friday morning. Sap just started to trickle in at 10:15am. Not likely to be a real big day, and will likely freeze up again tonite.

With the syrup in barrels, what we have (or soon will have) in concentrate, and syrup in pans, we're at 0.55 gal/tap. Sap is definitely slowing down, but looks like decent weather until about the middle of next week.

18572 18573

But right now I can assure you that it looks considerably less inviting

spud

04-18-2018, 09:31 AM

Oh WOW what a beautiful view.

Spud

WestfordSugarworks

04-18-2018, 05:18 PM

Our oldest tap holes are two days shy of 16 weeks old and most are still flowing well. All brand new tubing on this section. The 12,500 remaining holes between our two woods are still flowing well for the most part, but some have stopped flowing sap it seems. Mostly all check valves here with a few hundred white D&G 110 degree spouts.

Very good sap flow in our Jericho woods today. Vacuum just shy of 28 after finding 5 or 6 hanging drops. Still a few leaks out there but they must have started hissing after I checked the valves for leaks on those lines, and I wasn't feeling like going back out and walking a couple miles again. Would really like a monitoring system.

I am enjoying the late sugaring season. April 17th (yesterday) was the latest that sap from our Westford bush had ever been collected (since it was first tapped in 1979), but we are still going. I bet that there were seasons in the last few decades that went this late, but maybe not? The tubing system that used to be here was very old and sap would warm up quick in the poorly sloped black mainlines, so with our new tubing we can extend the season and get way more sap. Nearly at 0.5 gal per tap. Hope to make it thru the 23rd or 24th.

rhwells2003

04-19-2018, 08:22 AM

My main woods are still coming in a bit, but have slowed down considerably. I can't complain though after another pickup I'll be at 25gpt for the season. My small 3/16 system is still pulling good though. I'm up to 29gpt off my 3/16 this year. Happy camper here.

GeneralStark

04-19-2018, 08:23 AM

Sap ran well yesterday after a solid freeze Tuesday night. I boiled almost 2000 gal. of sap from monday-wednesday to make about 25 gal of DR and AR. Then I pushed what sugar I could out of the rig with water and made some more syrup. Not going to be hanging on at the evaporator any longer this season. Syrup flavor has become pretty earthy and there is a subtle lingering after taste that is only going to get worse. The boil has that unique "musty" smell as well. Sugar content is just below 1% and I'm almost out of barrels and wood. So, that's it for the historic 2018 season.

I'll share some stats when I have more time to calculate but the sap collection season went from 1/15 - 4/18, I collected over 30,000 gal of sap., and my syrup production ended up at .64 gpt. I'm very happy with how the season turned out. Now it's time to move onto other projects like siding the sugarhouse addition, restoring the sugar wood supply, making maple products, getting ready for the farmer's market season, and the mile long honey-do list I have.

Good luck to everyone still hanging in there!

DrTimPerkins

04-19-2018, 08:29 AM

About 4,200 gal of sap here overnight (off 4,929 taps) from yesterday afternoon to 6am today. Maybe a touch of a freeze in some parts of the bush, but sap never stopped running. Sugar content came up a bit to ~1.8 Brix. Sap quality is decent. Vacuum holding well at 26-27" Hg in the two bush areas (after a few repairs due to the wind storm). Will concentrate today (to add to what we put in the bulk tank over the past few days), and then boil everything tomorrow.

drewlamb

04-19-2018, 11:40 AM

Pretty good run for us yesterday too. About 2800 gal of sap or about 1.4 gal/tap. Made our first DR last Sat the 14th and expect the rest will go that way, and glad for it. We seem to be right in line with your flows this season Dr. Tim at Proctor, good and bad. Must be in the same elev/climate zone. And our sap also steady at 1.7-1.8, same as last couple boils. Thinking buds will swell up good next week and close the door. Probably do our last gather Tues. Should end up around 0.4 gal syrup/tap - certainly our best ratio ever. We have great slope but no mechanical vacuum, so I'm pretty pleased. Good luck with the rest everyone.

spud

04-19-2018, 05:29 PM

I was able to get .25GPT today. It never got warm enough to really run. I think it will run a little tomorrow again and then pick up this weekend when the sun comes out. I suspect Monday or Tuesday will be it for me. Sap is testing at 1.3% today. I think it's cool to see some of you getting 1+GPT per day. I'm just taking what I can get right now.

Spud

Ultimatetreehugger

04-20-2018, 12:03 AM

Between last night and today brought in over 1700 gallons including whats still in the tanks. Best run yet!

Parker

04-20-2018, 06:06 AM

Treehugef,,,,,what genral part of vt are you in?

chep

04-20-2018, 07:47 AM

All done here in Bradford. Pulled buckets wed. Due to family obligations. But the sap was running hard still in the 50 buckets I still had out. Over 1 gal per tap tues and again on wed.
Finished out the rig yesterday for the season total: we tapped Feb 26 and 27th. Hung 205 buckets. Buckets ran for 51 days giving good clear sap the whole time with a couple cold breaks. Our trees are mostly roadside. We live at 1200 ft and the buckets are on south, east and west slopes.
Made 82.5 gallons of syrup for .4 gpt. Best we have done to date. Just goes to show don't ever underestimate the power of the bucket! Hope everyone's season pans out well!

Ultimatetreehugger

04-20-2018, 07:57 AM

Wheelock, just north of St. Johnsbury.

drewlamb

04-20-2018, 08:03 AM

"Power of the bucket"! Love it. I miss bucket days... The tree to tree connection, knowing how each individual tree runs, lots of folks running around and helping out. Seems like most of the time now I'm on my own, both in the woods and at the sugarhouse. 0.4 for buckets is pretty remarkable. Nice work. Those big roadside trees can really crank. Do you know if your sugar content was also high?

blissville maples

04-20-2018, 08:10 AM

Ultimatetreehugger- when did you tap your trees this year? Those are some good end of season runs!

DrTimPerkins

04-20-2018, 09:30 AM

A bit on the cold side yesterday, so only 1,503 gal at 1.7 Brix collected. Vacuum still very good. Sap never ran hard, just a slow trickle all afternoon, then stopped around 7:30pm due to cold. About 2" new snow.

In any case, we have 615 gal of 36 Brix concentrate waiting to be boiled in the bulk tank, which should make about 240 gal of syrup. Did a test boil of the concentrate and no sign of buddiness. Will be firing up within the hour. Should take about 3.5 hrs to process (syrup production ~75 gal/hr, total processing rate ~180 gal/hr). Today was our 24th concentration and this will be our 11th boil. Averaging about 275 gal/boil.

Our first boil was Feb 21st. Tomorrow will be 2 full months making syrup, with a lot of fits and starts in there.

Looks like decent weather for sap flow over the weekend. We only need another 8,500 gal of sap (at 1.6 Brix) to get to the 3,000 gal syrup mark, so hoping we can get there before all its over.

Afternoon Update
Finished boiling. 228 gal of AR (65% LT), which puts us at 2.778 gal (0.564 gal/tap). Very nice, but mild flavor still. Not a drop of dark or very dark syrup yet this year. No sap running today...still snowing a good bit up here. Hoping for a couple of good runs over the weekend and early next week.

GiddingsHill

04-20-2018, 10:00 AM

Things picked up here for us Tuesday. Shipped 4423gal tuesday afternoon, 5210gal yesterday morning and had another 4000 gal in the tanks last night when it froze.
Upper woods ran well. only testing 1.3, but nice cold sap. couple inches of snow this morning, I think (and hope) the next few days will be exciting

smokeyamber

04-20-2018, 10:35 AM

Went out and pulled buckets yesterday... a handful are still running and are running clear. Biggest angst is that I have 60 gallons of sap that I will likely dump... maybe do some kind of "return to the trees ritual ? ". I will plan on twice the wood for next season. Good luck to all who are still going ! 11 gallons from 80 taps this year.

Ultimatetreehugger

04-20-2018, 02:56 PM

Ultimatetreehugger- when did you tap your trees this year? Those are some good end of season runs! I tapped 3rd week of February. It's been a very strange season. I've only had two gallon +/- days so far. Today might be another good one though.

blissville maples

04-20-2018, 08:35 PM

Pretty good numbers, I have one bucket tree that has 3 buckets, I get 60-80 gallons of 3-4 percent sap from. You must have some alike.

skixcvt

04-20-2018, 08:38 PM

802maple

04-21-2018, 03:42 AM

This was the year that if anything could break, it did twice. The 2 of us with bad knees couldn't keep the vacuum up to levels that we liked vacuum pump broke down, main electrical entrance blew up, lost a electric releaser pump at the worst time. Both high pressure pumps on the RO went and our manual releases out away from the sugarhouse were a constant problem. We didn't get tapped until March 3rd . Which is later than normal for us down here in Middlebury. But after all of that said, we are coming in on a half gallon per tap and still making decent quality dark amber.

Thompson's Tree Farm

04-21-2018, 05:42 AM

Paul VT

04-21-2018, 07:47 AM

First I want to say please don’t think we are crazy. Our buckets have been tapped for 2 months and most are still running strong. Have been full our running over many days this week. Sap yesterday still tests 1.7%. Making amber rich almost delicate syrup with dark robust flavor. Our 3/16 lines haven’t produce a gallon per tap in 3 weeks. We are at .4 gallons of syrup per tap. We have never had a season like this! Anyone else having luck like this with buckets?

DrTimPerkins

04-21-2018, 09:30 AM

How much darker syrup was made last year boiling the high brix concentrate?

It's a bit hard to compare. We made a large number of changes to our system over the past two yrs. For the 2017 season, we changed to HyperBrix RO and Lapierre Volcano 4'x12' pans. Our syrup was a bit lighter I think, but we were mainly concentrating to about 30 Brix, but then we also were putting the initial concentrate and the purge into the concentrate tank, and we were adding the filter press rinse to the concentrate tank also, so overall the Brix of what we were boiling was in the low 20s. This year, we changed our sap filtering and storage, concentrated as high as we could (always over 35 Brix), ran the RO start-up and purge back to the sap tank until it reached a stable high Brix, and put the filter press rinse into the sap tanks. It's also been a cold year, so lots of modest sap runs. We also got a refrigerated bulk tank for concentrate. We now concentrate for 2-3 days, store the high-brix (35+) concentrate at 23-24 deg F, and boil only when that tank is full (705 gal). So the concentrate has been around for a few days, but it is REALLY cold. Finally, this year we went to filtering directly off the rig (draw-off tank) instead of putting it into a finishing pan and reheating/filtering the next day.

So overall, hard to say what has had the biggest effect this year on cold....season, sap filtering, storage, RO processing, bulk tank, filtering directly off the rig. I do know that boiling only every 2-3 days and not having to handle the syrup twice (coming off the rig and coming off the finish pan) has been GREAT! Huge time and efficiency savings.

802maple

04-21-2018, 01:27 PM

Not sure yet...

DrTimPerkins

04-21-2018, 04:27 PM

Ran pretty well overnight, then froze up around 3am. Started running around 9am and running well today (see attachment). Sugar holding at about 1.6 Brix. About 3,000 gal in the tanks now. Will likely let the tanks fill overnight and tomorrow and start the RO on Monday, hoping to make some darker syrup. If all goes well, every tank should be full by Monday morning, and we'll break 3,000 gal of syrup for the first time ever, which would put us above 0.6 gal/tap.

Had one spout pop off this morning at 8:30am. Looks like the sun hit the spout on the south side of the tree, and the drop went around to the lateral on the north side, so the tree/ice pressure pushed it off. Haven't had many of these ourselves this year (although many others have reported it), so it was a bit of a surprise. Vacuum dropped off a bit before I found it, but it's back up above 24" Hg now and still headed up. Absolutely gorgeous day for a walk in the woods. Good time to remind myself that I almost took up chemistry as a profession -- glad to have dodged that bullet.

Walked by the pond on the way out to the woods...mostly open water, but no signs of peepers yet.

18582

DrTimPerkins

04-22-2018, 09:24 AM

Another good overnight run. No totals as yet -- not at work so can only see the tank measurements on H2O Smartrek and our cams. One 3,000 gal tank in the Main Bush full and spilling over into the 2nd tank (photo below). Looks like 4,500-5,500 gal or more yesterday. Sap sugar was 1.6 Brix in the afternoon. Flow continued until until about 3:55am, then stopped. Started up again at 8:45am this morning. We have enough storage (I hope) to let it run, so will wait and start the RO first thing in the morning. Concentrate should fill up a good portion of the bulk tank, but we'll probably let it "chill" and boil on Tuesday.

18586

WestfordSugarworks

04-22-2018, 10:21 PM

Sap flowed way down but syrup quality still very good. I think a third of a gallon per tap from our Jericho woods today and similar or less in Westford. Make some really good tasting stuff today. I think we hit half a gallon of syrup per tap in our Westford bush today but i'm not totally sure. Crazy to be boiling still. I think we will have our last boil on Tuesday night. Will be good to be done, haven't really realized how much free time it will give me. so used to just working and not thinking about the end, just getting through each week and keeping vacuum up and everything. Peepers started yesterday.

wiam

04-22-2018, 10:57 PM

Pretty good flow yesterday after freeze. Colder last night but not much sap today. I guess it’s over.

rhwells2003

04-23-2018, 08:18 AM

Anyone else having luck like this with buckets?

I don't think your crazy at all. I've been helping my daughter with her 13 buckets this year and I can tell you for free I'm sick of lugging 5gal buckets of sap from those buckets! 13 buckets, and she just hit 200 gallon mark yesterday!

I think we're pretty much done in my neck of the woods. I thought the sap that came in yesterday smelled sour to me. we'll see what my buyer thinks when he comes to pick it up today. I wouldn't be sad if its done, its been a long season and I've more then met my goals. I'm over 25gpt in my main woods, and around 32gpt on my 3/16 system.

Ultimatetreehugger

04-23-2018, 09:53 AM

Mediocre sap flow yesterday. Hard freeze last night is giving me great flow this morning. Hoping its keeps flowing well for a great last hoorah.

DrTimPerkins

04-23-2018, 11:42 AM

We got a total of 6,496 gal of 1.6/1.7 Brix sap from Friday evening through this morning. Would very likely have been about more if someone hadn't run into a telephone pole along our road which took out our power from 4-11 pm during a good run yesterday. In any case, the RO is running and concentrate is headed to the bulk tank. Just did a test boil of concentrate and it was still good. No odor at all in the sap, although it is a bit cloudy. Going to be rather warm today/tomorrow, so not sure how much longer it'll hold out. No peepers, but they won't be waiting long with temps in the 60s and sunny today and tomorrow.

spud

04-23-2018, 03:59 PM

I shut the pump down today. The season was full of problems for me. I bought another vacuum pump this year and plan to get a electric releaser for next season. I foolishly did not use Check valves this year and I regret it. I knew I was setting myself up for disaster before the season even started by not using them. We had about $30,000 in extra expenses this year with kids college and a few kids getting braces. Because of that I tried to save money and bought smart spouts. Heres my SIGN. Haha. My season total was about a .4 maybe a little less. The neighbors around me are at .5+ and Im glad they did well. Good luck to all of you who are still going. I love seeing your numbers. I hope all you Traders have a great summer. God Bless.

Spud

Ultimatetreehugger

04-23-2018, 06:19 PM

Turned my pump off. Had a good first season with tubing, collected 18532.9 gallons of sap with a high of 2.4 and my last load of sap at 1.4 percent. My average was 1.78 percent. Total syrup produced was 378.5 gallons.

GiddingsHill

04-23-2018, 08:59 PM

Still barely hanging on here, pretty good flow earlier today but I think this is nearly the last of it. Heard the frogs and found a few small wild leeks so I think tomorrow will be the end. Numbers as of now off my 4150 +/- taps:
147186 gal of sap
2709.7 gal syrup (by calculation) 29806.7 lbs of syrup
so .65 gal/tap or 7.18 lbs/tap. No complaints on the production, This year and last Ive struggled to get everything up and tight due to my "full time" job obligations. this meant a lot of head-lamp hours logged tapping and line walking at night. One 500 tap section I added this year wasn't tapped until March 12th, I was disappointed not to have it online from the start but it is running like a son-of-a-gun now. Im curious if that was due more to the late tapping, or new tubing, or both.
Ill be curious to see how far the coldest guys can make it into this week.

rhwells2003

04-24-2018, 08:08 AM

Well shut the pump down for the season yesterday. I was happy with the year. I have a total of 518 taps, 80 of which are on a small separate 3/16 system, and pulled a total of 13,275gal. This was the first time I set this up and experimented with the 3/16. I also made the switch on my main woods from a gas powered vac pump to electric. Nice not lugging 5gal gas cans anymore. Also worked on tightening up my main woods, and was able to consistently get 26.5"of vac. Highest I've ever gotten. My main woods ended up producing exactly 25gpt.

I was very impressed with the 3/16. I have 4 runs with 20 taps on each with a vac guage at the end of every run. After a few adjustments in the beginning all 4 vac gauges were consistently 23.5-28". I was able to pull 2,325gal off of 80 taps, so 29gpt.

My daughter had her best year yet with her buckets too. She put out 13 buckets and ended up with 200gal. It seemed like every time we gathered we'd get atleast 10-12 gallons, with two runs we got 21 & 25 gallons. But 15.4gpt on buckets is nothing to sneeze at in my book. I was impressed.

Hopefully get to pulling taps this weekend and wrap things up for the year!

hookhill

04-24-2018, 08:13 AM

Thanks to all of you who have contributed to this thread. It has been really fun and informative to read how the season progresses for everyone. We first boiled 3/1 and will finish today. We ended up making 100 gallons more than last year ending at around 770. Color and taste has remained good throughout the season. Early and mid season runs were average. Late season runs were below average. We utilized a one post RO to the fullest using various batch and recirculation tanks. Boiling at around 16-18% sure saves the wood. Another post would sure be handy. The bottleneck in the system is waiting for concentrate. We switched out a Filmtech 270 membrane for a MES. Performance was about the same. Best to you all and stay safe.

Potters3

04-24-2018, 08:21 AM

Shut the pump off last night. Still making good dark syrup but the sap just wasn't coming. Finished a little ahead of last year. Overall good season for us. Now to start the clean up, tap pulling so we can move onto filling the woodshed.

DrTimPerkins

04-24-2018, 08:46 AM

Flow has slowed quite a bit. 1,768 gal at 1.5 Brix overnight. Boiled some test concentrate and it was quite good, so will send it off to the bulk tank to boil today starting around noon. Should make about 170 gal of syrup from what we collected from Friday until today. We're getting really close to 3,000 gal (4,929 taps), so as long as it isn't buddy or off-flavored (sour), we'll keep the pumps running. Given the high temps forecast for today, I can't imagine it going much longer, but we'll see. Likely we'll see what we have collected again in the morning and either RO it and boil to finish up the pans, or boil Thurs.

Afternoon Update
Made a bit over 150 gal of Amber/Rich syrup. Flavor was nice, but still a bit mild. Very little niter. All of it went in the drum. Total is now 2,963 gal or 0.60 gal/tap. Sap is still running from some sections of the woods. We will collect in the morning, concentrate and do a test boil again. If the sap is good, we'll boil it -- if not, we'll dump it. Either way, we will boil out the pans and call it a season. Hoping to crack that 3,000 gal mark first.

smokeyamber

04-24-2018, 10:02 AM

Pulled more buckets yesterday and was amazed to see clear sap still dripping this late in the season from taps that went in way back in Feb. Pretty amazing year for production !

WestfordSugarworks

04-24-2018, 09:01 PM

Just finished boiling out the rig and ended up with 0.53 gals per tap for our Westford production on our 3000 taps here. By far the best production these woods have ever seen. The last 40 gallons of syrup ended up with definitely a strong taste, a bit raisin-like. I bet we will not get knocked on price though, it still tasted pretty good to me.

Sap is still being trucked out of Jericho woods to our buyer in Fairfield but the last load will be taken tonight or tomorrow morning. Will be a bit before production numbers come in there. Good season overall. Very smooth boils. We only used 1.5 bags of DE all season. I think for us, using less DE really helps increase the volume we can put through our press. We still have crystal clear syrup too.

Sap flow decreased quite a bit in the last 1-2 weeks. I don't know if tapping a bit later would have made a positive difference in our production this year. But tapping when there is no snow on the ground and getting those early season runs and having vacuum tight for the big runs is worth it to me. Rather than tapping a bit later and getting the end of season runs. This year maybe it would have been worth it, but it's a gamble and this season was an anamoly.

Starting to pull spouts tomorrow. Luckily have a few people lined up to help.

Good luck to all those still going and to everyone else with clean up, etc.

drewlamb

04-25-2018, 07:12 AM

Remarkable to read all these numbers. Just a fantastic year. Felt real good yesterday pushing last sweet through the pans as the sun rays did their god-ray thing through the steam in the cupola. Nice small mellow boil to reflect a bit on the season. For us, it won't be the big numbers we remember about 2018, but rather the first year with RO. What a game changer. RO brought other changes, like the need for a different filter press. Went from the SIRO to a plate press - another game changer. Less time in the sugarhouse with the RO this year also gave me more time in the woods to walk lines. Found a lot of clogs in my 3/16 lines, mostly in older tubing, so got a lot of practice chasing those down. One big change for me for next year will be experimenting with CV spouts. Even though all spouts were new, sap yield from older tubing, not surprisingly, slowed significantly at the end of the season. New tubing flowed equally well all season but older stuff tapered big-time. I have no mechanical vacuum so probably have higher taphole contamination than most, and thinking CVs for 3/16 gravity might be particularly appropriate.

We ended up with just under 700 gal from 1711 taps, or about 0.4 gal/tap. Not much compared to many of you on mechanical vac but our highest yield ever.

Thanks to everyone for their posts. Fantastic community here. Great to be able to connect with the greater maple community on a daily/weekly basis instead of just at open houses, meetings, or at the supplier shop. Have a great summer.

DrTimPerkins

04-25-2018, 09:02 AM

The fat peepers have sung (I have no idea whether they are female or male). Only 1,006 gal at ~1.4 Brix overnight. Sap is just a tiny bit sour (60-70 deg F and sunny will do that), but will make fine syrup (we did a test boil with concentrate already and we need some dark syrup). We'll start boiling the little concentrate we will got from that last run, and will put it and the contents of the backpan into the frontpan and boil it all out later this morning (with permeate running into the backpan). Will update this pm after we boil.

Afternoon Update
Boiled the concentrate and finished off the sweet in the pans. That's it for us. Total of 3,038 gal off 4,929 taps, or 0.62 gal/tap (6.8 lbs/tap). Slightly above our 0.59 gal/tap average. First time we've broken 3,000 gal. All syrup was either Golden/Delicate or Amber/Rich. Normally we start at Amber and go down from there. Never dropped below 60% light transmittance. Sugar content was average or slightly above average most of the season. Hardly any niter most of the year. I think I only switched sides (during a boil) 3 times all season.

We made a lot of changes to the sugarhouse this year, with more planned/coming this summer/fall. We pushed the new Lapierre HyperBrix RO hard just to see what it could do....we were NOT disappointed.

Hope to see folks at the Open Houses this Fri/Sat.

WestfordSugarworks

04-25-2018, 05:14 PM

Dr. Tim, when you boil out the rig do you just start introducing water once the last of your concentrate is boiled out? And do you end up with the contents turning abruptly from syrup to water at the end of the boil?

We used that technique yesterday but it seemed that the water just blended with syrup and it took forever for us to draw off. We are thinking of draining the back pan next year and then filling the back pan with water. Then adding in the back pan contents slowly to the front pan to boil it all out. Then maybe add water to the front pan once all the back pan contents are gone. Still seems like we would end up with a bit of semi-sweet stuff in the front pan that would go to waste.

DrTimPerkins

04-25-2018, 06:55 PM

No, that approach is called "chasing the sweet", and as you experienced, it is not extremely effective (I can explain why, but it is a bit long and complicated....the short version is that you're simply changing the "steepness" of the gradient, so forcing a little more sugar from the pan, but not a lot). The time between draws gets longer and longer, and the draws get smaller and smaller, and you're still left with a lot of syrup in the pan.

The way we used to do it was to empty both front and backpans into our finishing pan. We stopped using that the finishing rig this year and went to filtering directly off the evaporator (from a drawoff container), so there is no longer a finishing pan to use in that fashion. As an aside, at the rate we're making syrup (75 gal/hr), I'd never go back to a finishing pan again. Pretty sure it was making our syrup darker reheating it again.

Instead, the approach we use is to shut off the valve from the backpan to the frontpan, then transfer all the contents of the backpan to the frontpan (it ends up fairly deep). We then fill the concentrate tank with permeate and have it feed the backpan (we run it rather deeply....it helps to start the cleaning process) and boil. Since there is no incoming concentrate, the entire frontpan essentially ends up at the same concentration as you boil. It is more like boiling in one large flat-pan and no gradient forms. We will draw off with buckets (if necessary) at various points in the frontpan and pour it back in the frontpan across the partitions to make sure that there is no variation in density. We keep checking density in the pan (we can monitor temperature in all our partitions, so that is easy) until it gets to syrup. We boil until the syrup (across all pan sections) is a little bit dense, then shut off the evaporator and drawoff all of it into a drawoff container over about 30 min time, adding hot permeate from the backpan to standardize to density, then run it through the filter press. The only syrup we miss at that stage is what is held up in the press. If we really are eager to save that, we will flush it with hot water and run that into a turkey cooker (propane) to boil down and filter through a cone filter. We didn't bother with that today, and just let the last 2-3 gal of syrup caught in the press go in the garbage can (horrors!). We knew the total amount we were going to make was only going to be a few drums (75 gal), so we blocked off (with a flat SS flat plate) the back 1/3 of our press, so it didn't hold up as much syrup as usual. Done and done.

markcasper

04-26-2018, 07:07 AM

DrTimPerkins

04-26-2018, 07:46 AM

I don't know....I chase with permeate after every boil and can usually get the contents in the flue pan down to 6% sugar...

So basically you're doing a hybrid of the two approaches.

GiddingsHill

04-26-2018, 09:46 AM

Shut it down this morning and dumped about 2000gal. Its remarkable how much sap Im still getting even with the pump off, but the quality and sugar content was gone. Despite my constant complaining throughout this long season its always hard for me to shut the pump off and turn the valves on that last sap.
I haven't verified the test of the last couple loads with my buyer but I'd guess Im around 7.2 lbs/tap or .65 gal/tap. Lots of modifications and some expansion planned for next season... but right now Im looking forward to taking a little time off from sapping work once I'm cleaned up.

WestfordSugarworks

04-26-2018, 01:25 PM

Thanks Dr. Tim, I'll tell my dad about this approach and hopefully our last boil will go smoother next year.

spud

12-17-2018, 08:00 PM

I plan to start tapping on January 21st. My buddy from Alaska is going to help me tap this year. We hope to get done in 8-10 days. I'm starting to get the bug. I was able to get the 4-wheeler into the woods the other day. I had a few trees on mainlines that needed cutting. As of right now the woods looks good but that can all change in the next month. Good luck everyone.

Spud

PARKER MAPLE

12-18-2018, 05:21 AM

Same here spud, I have been getting itchy and thinking it's going to be upon us soon. Got in one of our woods Saturday and only had a few trees on lines. I figured after that last major storm that knocked power out here for 7days we would be screwed. Not to bad there. I will do the other woods this weekend and keep my fingers crossed.
Good luck this season

DrTimPerkins

12-18-2018, 08:46 AM

We're targeting Jan 15 to start tapping, but that'll depend upon the weather a little. Hope to be done by early-February. Sugarhouse is in good shape. Need to do a little pump reconfiguration and some plumbing for that since we had CDL put in a new 3" Rapitube dry line from the pump location (in the lab basement) to the RO/Releaser room.

GeneralStark

01-03-2019, 02:33 PM

I have been chipping away at getting things ready in the woods. Had to clear limbs again after the heavy snow we had in November and December and re-tension some mainlines. Hoping to redo a section of mainline that has too many repairs and was problematic last season with freeze ups as well as repair a few other problem areas before being ready to tap later in January. Looks like a good chance for another up and down kind of winter so hoping to be ready to catch some February runs if they come. We are still getting used to life with our newborn daughter but loving every minute. Been getting her out in the woods a little bit...

PARKER MAPLE

01-06-2019, 08:41 PM

Woods work has started. And for the last few weekends we have been able to get things in order. Our new lease last year got 500' more of mainline to get us to the road side. I built and spray foamed insulated a new pump house. Green mountain power will be doing the service hook up later this week. Purchase a airtech pump for there, and will have an electric releaser.
The old woods we decided. Rip it all out and replace it all. Seems crazy this late to do. But man we made so good progress these last two weekends there. Bought a SS open tank for there and will build a roof for that will except the releaser so it's under the same cover. No power options there. So an airablo vac pump and mechanical releaser will do the job.hoping to get 1200 back online there.
Got lots still to do in sugarhouse as well, installing the air injection in the evaporator. And lots of cleaning of tanks ec.

WestfordSugarworks

01-07-2019, 05:55 PM

We have about 6500 taps in. A little less than halfway done. Been making good progress since we started on Dec 29 with little snow and good temperatures, though looks like that will change after tomorrow. Grateful to be done with college and able to dedicate this spring to sugaring. Not much is new for us this year except we got a new releaser in our small bush and got an automatic shutoff valve from MES for our Jericho woods. We kept getting these huge torrents of sap that would get unleashed when a big freeze would thaw out and it would flood the releaser, moisture trap, and pump. So for pretty cheap MES installed a valve between our releaser and moisture trap that connects to a sensor placed near the top of the releaser. Once sap touches that sensor it immediately shuts off the valve and it reopens once the sump pumps have time to clear out the sap and the sensors are free again. I'll let you all know how it works but I think it's a great investment. Good luck to all this winter/spring.